The Pope has praised the witness of 10 athletes on Refugee Olympic Team in Rio De Genaro, Brazil, Catholic News Service reported. 

In a personal message addressed to each of the 10 members of the new Refugee Olympic Team, Pope Francis wished them success in their events and thanked them for the witness they are giving the world.

Naming each of the team’s athletes from South Sudan, Syria, Congo and Ethiopia, Pope Francis said he had read some of the interviews with team members “so that he could get closer to their lives and their aspirations.”

The Pontiff extended his greetings and wishes the Refugee Olympic Team success at the Olympic Games in Rio – adding that their courage and strength find expression through the Olympic Games and serve as a cry for peace and solidarity,” he said in the message, signed in late July.

The 2016 Summer Games marked the first time a refugee team officially participated in the Olympics. Team members marched under the Olympic flag and, in the event a team member wins a medal, the Olympic anthem was to be played instead of the national anthem of the athlete’s home country.

Pope Francis expressed his hope that through the team “humanity would understand that peace is possible, that with peace everything can gained, but with war all can be lost.”

The Pope told the Refugee Olympic Team that their experience serves as a testimony that benefits the entire human race.

Five of the athletes — including the 23-year-old Rose Nathike Lokonyen, the team’s flag bearer for the opening ceremony — are South Sudanese refugees who were living in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.

The national Olympic committees of the refugees’ host countries, the U.N. Refugee Agency and the International Olympic Committee chose the team members.

The I-O-C provided the athletes uniforms and is covering their costs and those of the team’s coaches and staff.