Sundays mean church and soccer in Italy.
With Vatican Radio now featuring cardinals as soccer commentators on a weekly show, the combination also holds true on Mondays.
Just three weeks old, the program's learned opinionisti are making headlines with their sage -- and sometimes controversial -- advice for coaches and club managers.
The first guest was Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini, who condemned the way that players are selected for the Italian national team.
"There are pressures and recommendations," Angelini said. "The fact that playing soccer has now become an economic reality creates a consideration where being or not being on the national team can increase or decrease the commercial worth of an athlete, which is very sad."
Italy's coach, Marcello Lippi, did not take well to Angelini's comment.
"I understand that Italy is a Catholic country, but now we've got cardinals talking out?" he said. "I'm having a hard time understanding this."
Lippi may have to get used to it.
The weekly show, called Not Only Sports, airs every Monday on 105 Live, an FM station broadcast in the Rome area that was started four years ago to give the Vatican a new, younger voice.
After the first edition, the program was picked up by RAI, the state radio system, and is now being rebroadcast nationally.
"It's a man of God talking sports, an earthly pastime, talking the people's language," said Sean-Patrick Lovett, the director of 105 Live. "Sports is something that the people are interested in. The church is not just about sex scandals and papal decrees."
The show's host and producer, Luca Collodi, hopes to feature a different cardinal each week.
Joining Angelini yesterday was Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the archbishop of Genoa, known in sports circles for offering up occasional radio play-by-play of his favourite team, Juventus.
Angelini lamented the presence of too many foreign players in Italy's biggest clubs.
"It's true we're in a world of globalization, but we don't need to go and draw from foreign teams," Bertone said. "We need to help our young players. Great champions have been born on our fields."