I had one of the best nights out I've had in ages on Saturday evening - I went to a sports bar in Leeds with my brother John and we watched two Euro 2012 games from the same qualifying group simultaneously on two gigantic screens: Greece versus Russia and Poland versus the Czech Republic. A large group of Poles sat to one side of us, dressed in various combinations of red and white, and in front of us there were some Greeks and, I believe, some Czechs. It was the last match in the round and what happened in one game potentially affected the chances of the teams in the other match. People of different nationalities were whooping, holding their hands in their heads desparingly, embracing delightedly and jumping up in the air.
Leeds never used to be this cosmopolitan. I suddently felt that I belong to the European Union. There was real passion in the play on the field and on the faces of the supporters in the bar, but it was channelled properly. I thought: it's possible to be both patriotic and pro-European. "And", as I think von Balthasar said, "is a very Catholic word." Playing football across national boundaries in the highly committed and vigorous way that we saw on Saturday night is a serious means of building up international unity and gives glory to God, the creator of variety. The beer was good too!
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