Holy Bowlers: Vatican Fields a Cricket Team, Challenges Church of England

“St. Peter’s Cricket Club” hopes to settle some unfinished business in a game with the Church of England’s cricket team

  • Share
  • Read Later

Like TIME on Facebook for more breaking news and current events from around the globe!

AP / Gregorio Borgia

Monsignor Sanchez de Toca y Alameda, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, wears a cricket helmet during the presentation of the Vatican cricket club at the Vatican.

The Vatican will form its own cricket team, named “St. Peter’s Cricket Club,” the Pontifical Council for Culture announced over tea and cucumber sandwiches in a ceremony Tuesday.

A cricket team for the Holy See comes after lobbying by John McCarthy, Australia’s ambassador to the Vatican, CNN reports.

“They were wondering what this ‘cricket’ is, as to whether it’s a game or an insect or both,” McCarthy told Vatican radio. “But I can say that there was a fairly ready recognition of the fact that there is a very prominent position by this sport in the East…(and) in the English-speaking world, and that there are many priests and seminarians in Rome who have played cricket and want to play cricket.”

McCarthy said the team’s first target would be its old rival, the Church of England, which split from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.

[CNN]