{"id":17788,"date":"2026-03-24T10:05:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/24\/from-altar-to-track-marathon-runner-cardinal-sheds-light-on-spirituality\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T10:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:05:43","slug":"from-altar-to-track-marathon-runner-cardinal-sheds-light-on-spirituality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/2026\/03\/24\/from-altar-to-track-marathon-runner-cardinal-sheds-light-on-spirituality\/","title":{"rendered":"From altar to track: Marathon runner cardinal sheds light on spirituality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

On March 23, thousands of athletes raced through the streets of Rome in the annual Rome Marathon. One of them, wearing a Dominican monk’s white habit under his jersey, was Franco-Algerian Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP \u2013 the first cardinal to participate in the event’s 44-year history.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been running since I was a kid,” Vesco told EWTN News. “I love running and have already run several marathons, such as the New York Marathon 37 years ago.”<\/p>\n

In a sermon during Mass for participants of the Rome Marathon on March 21, the cardinal said the competition teaches about the fragility of the human body and how it can be a “school of prayer” and of life.<\/p>\n

He said, “At some point in the race, our strength will fail, and we will have to go beyond our strength and take a leap of faith. This is difficult. But it is precisely at this point that we can search deep within ourselves for meaning, and perhaps this will be a moment of prayer.”<\/p>\n

Cardinal’s personal hero: a Muslim fellow runner<\/h2>\n

The Cardinal completed the Rome Marathon with his old friend Khaled Boudaoui. Boudaoui, an Algerian Muslim, ran the Rome Marathon last year and was awarded the “La Coppa degli Ultimi” trophy by the Vatican to recognize those who become “witnesses of hope” during the race.<\/p>\n

Khalid was recently diagnosed with a tumor and began chemotherapy just 25 days before competing in Rome this year. Vesco praised his friend, saying his courage inspired him to run another public marathon.<\/p>\n

“Khalid is my hero. He is sick, and we wanted to run and cross the finish line hand in hand. The marathon is beautiful because it is somewhat like life. In the marathon, we run not against each other but with each other \u2013 a race of brotherhood,” he said.<\/p>\n

Khalid, in turn, said: “It was very difficult for me to run after I started chemotherapy. But I ran today thanks to my friend Jean-Paul. I ran to show others who might be going through similar diseases, that they can run too. We ran to build bridges.”<\/p>\n

Catholic presence in marathon inspired by Pope Francis<\/h2>\n

Vesco’s participation in the marathon was already an attraction for Catholics competing in the race. The Vatican’s sports team, Atl\u00e9tica Vaticana, has participated in the marathon since 2019, encouraged by Pope Francis. Giampaolo Mattei, president of Athletica Vaticana, described Francis’ influence on the sport and its mission of service to others.<\/p>\n

“We were inspired by Pope Francis’ example of inclusion,” Mattei told EWTN News, recalling that the late Pope had asked him to include migrants on his team. “In our sports team, we are not just looking for Catholics. We are looking for core values \u200b\u200b\u2013 living together, community and attention to the disabled and the poor.”<\/p>\n

“La Coppa degli Ultimi” (“The Cup of the Last”) is one of several spiritual initiatives promoted by Atl\u00e9tico Vaticana. Another initiative was a prayer box for participants, in which runners of all faiths were invited to place written prayer intentions before the competition.<\/p>\n

Valentina Giacometti, vice president of Athletica Vaticana, explained about the initiative: “The day before the race, we invited all the runners to present prayer intentions. Each card began with the phrase ‘I ran for this,’ and we offered all these intentions to the Lord during Mass with Cardinal Vesco.”<\/p>\n

Another notable initiative of Athletica Vaticana is its service to the poor of Rome. After the race, members of Atl\u00e9tica Vaticana and other volunteers go to Rome’s central train station, Roma Termini, to serve food to the homeless. Sister Marie-Theo Puybareau Manaud, who took part in the race, called it a way to express the universal brotherhood taught by Pope Francis.<\/p>\n

Pointing to Pope Francis’ 2020 encyclical, he said, “Service to the poor may seem different from the idea of \u200b\u200brunning. But I believe this connection is actually that of universal brotherhood \u2013 ‘Fratelli Tutti.'” “In this race, we are not competitors but brothers. Sport and service together form a movement of life, especially with the poorest, to whom we can offer hope.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 23, thousands of athletes raced through the streets of Rome in the annual Rome Marathon. One of them, wearing a Dominican monk’s white habit under his jersey, was Franco-Algerian Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP \u2013 the first cardinal to participate in the event’s 44-year history. “I’ve been running since I was a kid,” Vesco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3727,3772,524,8566,8567,8568,8569,2797],"class_list":["post-17788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-news","tag-altar","tag-cardinal","tag-light","tag-marathon","tag-runner","tag-sheds","tag-spirituality","tag-track"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17788"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17788\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17790,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17788\/revisions\/17790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}