After reading the title of this story, you might be surprised that it has nothing to do with child molestation. Besides the changing of the Popes, there hasn’t been much news about the Vatican that isn’t about another pedophilia scandal. Instead, the Vatican made news recently by founding their official cricket team, and laying down a challenge to the Church of England.

Catholic clergymen from Vatican city hail from across the globe, so it’s no surprise that the popular sport of cricket is a common pastime. The challenge being issued is not a safe bet either. The catholic team wants to play at the sport’s home: Lord’s Cricket Ground, London, England. In case you couldn’t guess from the name, the Church of England is based in England with headquarters in London.

The goal of this monumental match is to start using cricket as a way to connect with followers of other faiths. Pope Francis’s vision for the church is that it would reach out to all corners of the globe, and cricket is a great way to reach an international audience while building positive relationships with members of other religions.

Personally, I find this concept of religion v. religion sports matches to be slightly funny and totally positive. It would be great if religions could stop killing each other over their differences and have some fun together. I can picture a world championship tournament between cricket teams from major religions. I am imagining a bunch of teams in groups on a cricket ground warming up and stretching. The Vatican’s team in one area, the Anglicans in another, Muslims here, Hindus there, and then a group of American Mormons with baseball bats and no idea what’s going on.

While I have a feeling the teams might not have cool names, I want to help them out and give them some ideas in case they decide to adopt a better name. Obviously, you have to start with “The Vatican Cardinals”(Honorable mention: “The Catholic Crusaders” but that might not insight the best response). Another easy one, for the Mormon team: “The Latter-day Sluggers.” Maybe there could be “The Anglican Angels” or “The Hindu Heat”, “The Mighty Muslims”, “The Jerusalem Jets”, “The Baptist Barracudas”, “The Methodist Mercenaries”, or even “The Lutheran Locusts.” I think the fact that these names are all tough and menacing makes assigning them to a group of religious leaders so funny to me.

The only problem I can foresee is rivalries. Conflicts based in religion seem to be nearly constant. Right now, Israeli Jews and Palestinians Muslims aren’t really getting along too well. This of course would be in addition to the normal sports rivalries that frequently get escalated, even without religious conflict. Even if the teams and everyone involved keeps a friendly and peaceful attitude, the fans and followers might not. To keep these matches peaceful would take considerable effort, but again that is the goal.

If the viewers do manage to stay friendly then they might just build bridges. There would definitely be a better understanding of the other team’s religion, better knowledge of their beliefs, customs, history, and of course cricket skill.

If the events manage to stay peaceful, then I think a faith-based cricket league would be extremely beneficial. Followers of each religion will hopefully have something to come together over. Finally, the “peaceful” religions of the world may have a chance to come together for a reason other than war.