Home
 Centenary of the Olympic Games Scott 1011 (1996) On Friday morning, July 19, 2024, a Mass for Peace was celebrated in Paris in anticipation of the start of the Summer Olympics, which began yesterday, July 26. Pope Francis sent the following message to those in attendance: "I ask the Lord to bestow His gifts upon all those who will participate in any way – whether athletes or spectators – and also to support and bless those who will host them, especially the faithful of Paris and elsewhere."Among those in attendance at the Mass was Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, as well as other diplomats and sports personalities. In addition, on Thursday, July 25, Athletica Vaticana, the Holy See's official sports association, published a message to the athletes of the Paris Games, saying in part: "The Olympics and Paralympics can be strategies for peace and antidotes to war games...[and with] the beauty and fairness of each person's sporting gesture, and without ever resorting to shortcuts, the Games can be opportunities for hope".The Paris Games mark the 33rd Olympiad of the modern Olympic Games. Approximately 200 national Olympic Committees are represented at the Games, with around 10,500 athletes competing in 329 events across 32 sports. As one might guess, Vatican City is not represented at the Games, given that the city-state has the smallest population of any country in the world. In 1996, Vatican City issued the five stamps shown across the top of this article to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the first games of the modern Olympiad, which were held in Athens, Greece, from April 6 to 15, 1896. The Centennial Games were contested in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States, from July 19 to August 4, 1996. It is interesting that the Centennial Games were not held in Athens, but the city did host the 28th Summer Olympics eight years later in 2004. In addition to the stamps for the centennial of the Games, Vatican City has issued one other Olympic-themed philatelic item, the aerogramme from the year 2000, which featured Father Henri Didon, who coined the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, which was adopted as the motto of the Olympics at the suggestion of his friend, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, one of the founders of the International Olympic Committee.  Father Henri Didon, Centennial of Death Aerogramme, 2000(1996) REFERENCE:: |
