THERE PROBABLY are millions of running clubs all over the world with varied membership and purpose, where the main aim is to practice running regularly and spend leisure time actively. It could be composed of elite and competitive athletes, beginners, or the weekend warrior types.
In 2018, journalist Giampaolo Mattei with Osservatore Romano and Melchor Sanchez, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, formed the only sports association in the world’s smallest state, the Vatican. The group is called Atletica Vaticana and has more than 100 men and women between the ages of 19 to 65. It is composed of African migrants, office workers, pharmacists, artists, Swiss Guards, professors, the clergy, an Apostolic Nuncio, and a bishop. Not everyone is a resident or an employee of the small state.
Mattei said the club was created when Vatican state employees used to meet on the street before work to run. The club is legally registered with the Italian Olympic Committee. Although there are other sports within the walls of the Vatican, it is the only one officially recognized by the Holy See.
Because the running club is in the Vatican, it has two spiritual leaders in Msgr. Andrea Palmieri of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and Fr. Giovanni Buontempo of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life. A dicastery is a department of the Roman Curia. They organize a Holy Mass before marathons in Rome, Florence, Venice, Valencia, and New York. Yes, both clerics do run.
Before the pandemic, Mattei and Sanchez planned a worldwide athletics meeting called “Run Together,” which had the confirmation not only of famous athletes from several countries but also of former inmates and people with mental illness.
The overall objective of Atletica Vaticana is playing sports (running) in the company of others, foster community, and give testimony. Pope Francis, when he met the club, told them that thru exercise, they must bank on solidarity and inclusion – the importance of living alongside each other and attention towards discrimination especially to those who have physical and mental disabilities.
Prof. Paul Gabriele Weston, a member of the club said: “Our idea of teamwork is that there is no distinction of ethnicity, religion, culture or language.” This explains the fact that one member is a Muslim, and there’s a 12-year-old girl in a wheelchair who runs with them.
Atletica Vaticana. Sublime athletes running for solidarity and the promotion of spiritual and cultural initiatives./PN
