Pope Francis, who passed away this Monday at the age of 88, was one of the very few Argentines who didn’t watch Lionel Messi lift the World Cup trophy in Qatar 2022. The reason? A promise he made to Our Lady of Mount Carmel back in 1990, which led him to stop watching TV altogether. “I told myself: ‘this doesn’t do the heart any good,’” he explained in an interview with La Nación in March 2023.

A football-loving Pope who kept his word

Even though he was a die-hard San Lorenzo fan and had followed football since he was young, Francis stuck to his promise throughout his papacy. Ironically, that meant he missed Argentina’s two biggest World Cup finals in recent years: the heartbreaking loss to Germany in 2014 and the glorious win over France in 2022. While that final in Qatar was being played—on December 18th, 2022, just a day after his 86th birthday—the Pope was chatting with five Alitalia pilots and their wives, sipping Argentine wine and talking about life.

“When I got back, they told me, ‘we’re winning 3–2 or 3–1, can’t remember.’ Later, I found out we’d won on penalties,” he recalled. In that same interview, the Pope reflected on Argentine attitudes: “We get excited when we start strong, but we struggle to see things through. We celebrate winning the first half like we’ve already won the match. But no—it’s not over till it’s over.”

Football as a way to bring people together

During his time as pontiff, Pope Francis championed the idea of sport as a tool for unity and peace. He launched the Match for Peace, which brought together over 150 football legends in three editions held at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome—the last one taking place in 2022 as a tribute to Diego Armando Maradona. His love for the game wasn’t about watching it—it was about what it could do to inspire and unite.

Despite the rumors, Francis never watched the 2014 World Cup final with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, as suggested in the film The Two Popes by Fernando Meirelles. The Pope himself denied that version and clarified that he’s stuck to his no-TV rule since 1990—only breaking it for rare occasions like presidential inaugurations or major national tragedies.