Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, welcomed Luciano Buonfiglio, President of the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI), and Marco Giunio De Sanctis, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee (CIP), to the Vatican in two separate meetings on Tuesday 16 and Thursday 18 December.

The meetings were attended by Bishop Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Dicastery, with Official Don Miguel Fraga Cardoso, and Giampaolo Mattei, President of Athletica Vaticana, the official sports body of the Holy See.

Also in the run-up to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milano Cortina, direct collaboration was initiated in the field of education and inclusion, with a special commitment to peace, along the lines proposed by the Magisterium of the Holy Father Leo XIV.