| Goals were given a priestly blessing during the stadium Mass | |
Web posted at: 8:25 p.m. EST (0125 GMT)
From Buenos Aires Bureau Chief Luis Clemens
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- An Argentine soccer team has reached for divine help to set it on a winning track.
"An inexplicable passion" is how the long-suffering fans of the professional soccer team known as "Racing" (pronounced RAH-sing) describe their fervor. It is a devotion that has been unrewarded since 1966, the last time the team won a championship.
So the fans enthusiastically joined in a ceremony designed to "exorcise the club's demons" and pave the way to a championship season.
"We are uniting Roman Catholicism with Racingism," said Daniel Lalin, Racing Club president. "It is an act of faith. The same faith displayed by the fans who stoically go to the stadium every Sunday."
Lalin organized a Mass in the stadium, complete with a priestly blessing of the team and the stadium's goals. A choir sang Handel's "Messiah."
| Stadium Mass | |
Once the goals were blessed, the service continued with a rock concert by a popular local band, Vox Dei. The band performed tunes from one of its first albums, "The Bible." It was named that because each song is based on a biblical passage.
A banner hung from the stage: "God is a Racing fan. The devil is not."
However, whatever effect the ceremony may have had was not apparent in the match that followed.
Racing lost 2-0.
The fans remain devout, however, in a country where soccer is more an obsession than a national pastime. They hope their faith will be rewarded with a championship season.
And if not, a similar ceremony is planned for next year.
