at La Madeleine, at a mass to mark the start of the Olympic truce

It is one of the great spiritual highlights of the 2024 Olympic Games. Nearly a thousand faithful are expected at the church of La Madeleine, in Paris, on Friday July 19 at 10 a.m.

A mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris one week before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. It will mark the beginning of the Olympic truce scheduled to last until mid-September, one week after the end of the Paralympic Games.

A tradition since 1896

Although the mass is not included in the official Olympic Games program, it has been perpetuated from Olympiad to Olympiad since the first edition of the modern games in Athens in 1896, initiated by the founder Pierre de Coubertin, from a practicing Catholic family, and celebrated by the French Dominican Henri Didon, inventor of the motto of the Games: “Citius, Altius, Fortis” (Faster, Higher, Stronger). During the Paris Games in 1924, a religious celebration was held at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Twenty-six editions later, the mass takes on a different tone in a global context troubled by numerous conflicts: Russian invasion of Ukraine, war in Gaza…

The Olympic break begins

This year, the mass will mark the beginning of the Olympic truce, an ancient tradition that took root in the 9th century BC, in an ancient Greece perpetually at war. At the time, the kings agreed on a pause in the clashes in order to allow athletes and spectators from the cities to participate in sporting events in complete safety. It was revived by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1993 in the midst of the Bosnian War.

In 2024, the 206 competing delegations have been invited to the capital’s majestic church, La Madeleine. “Ambassadors, members of the National Olympic Committees, representatives of religions and the State, will be invited to unite for peace, more necessary than ever, and threatened,” said the Conference of Bishops of France. Several personalities have already confirmed their presence in the assembly: Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games of France, Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, as well as many ambassadors, including the Israeli representative. As for the Russian and Ukrainian ambassadors, no response has yet been received to date.

On the Holy See side, this Olympic truce is encouraged by Pope Francis. “I hope that sport can concretely build bridges, break down barriers and foster peaceful relations. (…) The authentic Olympic and Paralympic spirit is an antidote to not fall into the tragedy of war and redeem ourselves by putting an end to violence,” he expressed last June.