The Super Bowl is from Mars and the Olympics are from Venus.

That’s what some would have us believe. But is it so?

This week, Americans will gather around their televisions in record numbers to watch two very different sporting events.

The first, of course, is the Super Bowl, pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Seattle Seahawks. The second is the 2006 Winter Olympics. Since they are happening in the same week, it’s irresistible to draw comparisons.

The Super Bowl has the reputation of being the gladiator-fighting ritual of the world’s last super-power.

 Everything about it, from the title to the halftime show, seems exaggerated in importance. When we commemorate the resurrection of Christ we rename the day Easter Sunday. We also rename game-day Super Bowl Sunday. Getting married, becoming a bishop or being elected pope gains you a special ring; so does winning this football game. A 30-second commercial spot goes for an amount of money that would transform most people’s lives if they had it: $2.5 million. The game has a grand title and uses pretentious Roman numerals after its name — but actress Julia Roberts is older than the Super Bowl.

The Olympics, on the other hand, have the reputation of being the ancient unity ritual showing the harmony of mankind.

Its opening ceremonies feature columns of marchers waving flags — but they are soldiers of peace, not war. A sweeping, modernistic torch is at the center, symbolizing hope springing up in a post-nationalistic world. There are no violent scrambles for the end zone; at the Winter Olympics, the center of attention will be the graceful routines of ice skaters. Television commentators will tell us about the personal struggles of athletes in far-flung lands. Politicians will visit the Olympics to show their love for world peace.

The Super Bowl seems aggressive and ostentatious, while the Olympics seem graceful and harmonious. But is it so?

The truth is, the excesses of both events share far more in common than would first appear.

The Olympics, after all, aren’t really an ancient event celebrating the brotherhood of mankind. The Winter Olympics are younger than Bob Barker. They were created in an attempt to evoke the Greek games of the past, but they aren’t really in continuity with them. Their “opening and closing ceremonies” are as overblown in their excess as anything the Super Bowl offers. There are many world contests at which the best skiers and skaters compete. Many are truer tests of the worlds’ best athletes. But they get a sliver of the attention the Olympics get.

So what should a Catholic’s attitude be toward events like these?

It’s true that the excesses that build up around sporting events can detract from the nobility of the games. Pope John Paul II once warned that consumerist interests have gotten so out of hand that they “might darken the nobility of sports itself.”

But he saw a deeper possibility, too, ascribing more importance to sports contests than all of the silly aggrandizements popular culture puts on them.

“Surmounting differences of cultures and ideologies,” he said, “sports offers an ideal occasion for dialogue and understanding among peoples, for building the desired civilization of love.”

Pope Benedict XVI has the same hope. Before becoming Pope, he was known for being a sports fan and cardinal, both at once.

 “The Pope is a man of sports,” said Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, archbishop of Genoa. “I often spoke with him about sports. I am a soccer fan, and the Pope has dedicated books of his written in German to” Giovanni Trapattoni, the great coach of Italian and German teams.

“Trapattoni read Cardinal Ratzinger’s books in German,” continued the archbishop of Genoa. “It is a beautiful relationship, with a great coach whom he knew personally, with whom he talked and chatted. Benedict XVI appreciates Giovanni Trapattoni and he will have a positive relationship with sports.”

Pope Benedict blessed the Olympic torch in Rome on the feast of the Immaculate Conception and sent it on its way to the games in Turin — a city famous for the shroud of Christ. Benedict said sporting events should encourage “mutual respect, loyalty, and solidarity among peoples and cultures.”

As for us, you can see our attitude toward the Super Bowl and the Olympics on page one of this issue.

We love them.

We’ll be rooting for the Rooneys and Rebecca Dussault this week — and praying that both can do their small part to move the world one step closer to a civilization of love.