Boxing?Sin

Professional Boxing Immoral: Vatican-Backed Journal

from Reuters

VATICAN CITY: A leading journal that reflects the official view of the Vatican said on Thursday that professional boxing and the business that surrounds it is intrinsically immoral.

Civilta Cattolica (Catholic Civilisation) said professional boxing was based on violence and run by business interests that sees the boxer not as an athlete but as a money machine. "From a moral point of view the judgment of boxing can only be gravely and absolutely negative," the journal said in an article called "The Immorality of Professional Boxing."

The journal of the Italian Jesuit order said boxing goes against "natural and divine" principles because it aims to inflict wounds that sometimes can lead to death. It cited the case of boxer Levander Johnson, 35, who died last month in the United States, five days after suffering injuries in a lightweight title fight with Jesus Chavez.

Apart from what the journal called boxing’s violent nature, Civilta Cattolica condemned it because of the way it is run and promoted. "In reality, professional boxing is manipulated by powerful economic groups, which are often ruthless and cruel, and for whom the boxer is not a man but only a machine to make money," the journal said.