The arrival of Pope Leo XIV in Monaco this Saturday March 28 was the opportunity for a well-known French football player to read a passage from the Old Testament during the high mass celebrated at the Louis II stadium.
His intervention at the Louis II stadium did not go unnoticed. Retired from professional pitches for almost 20 years, Guillaume Warmuz (55 years old) made a remarkable appearance in the Principality, where he ended his career in 2007 after two last seasons at ASM (37 matches).
For the first (and short) visit (less than 9 hours) of a pope in almost 500 years in this Mediterranean micro-state of less than 2 km2 and 39,000 inhabitants, a mass was in fact celebrated by Leo Monegasque. If it did not mobilize the hoped-for crowds from neighboring France or Italy, it gave the former goalkeeper the opportunity to read a passage from the Bible.
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“I found new strength in prayer”
The man who spent most of his career in Lens (1992-2003) has in fact read a passage from the Old Testament, the book of Ezekiel. And for good reason since he became responsible for the chaplaincy. “I cannot celebrate mass or give the sacraments. But lay people who are baptized can be intermediaries where there is a lack of priests,” he explained three years ago to our colleagues from Ouest France.
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A faith which finds its source in the heart of his career, which he believed he would not be able to resume after a serious knee injury. “I am in rehabilitation in Saint-Jean-de-Monts (Vendée) and I am very afraid, he told our colleagues. Not being able to play again. I started praying and going to the village church. I’m alone, I ask God to help me because I feel like I’m not going to get through this. I cling to prayer. Finally, little by little, it comes back. It still takes a year to heal, it’s a very long time, but I found new strength in prayer.”
There is no doubt that this reading before the sovereign pontiff will only strengthen it.
