06Oct 24
Monsignor Vesco: the first marathon cardinal
“Saint Augustine teaches that singing is praying twice. I don’t know what he would have said if he had been a runner… But even those who run pray twice because running is a place of meditation and special inner availability. I remember feeling the strong awareness of the call to follow God in a desert race perhaps because at that moment my life was too loud to hear him anywhere else…”. That’s what he said Monsignor Jean-Paul Vesco a few years ago at the start of the Ara Pacis Roman half marathon wearing the t-shirt of Vatican Athletics. Sixty-two years old, French, Dominican religious, bishop of Oran in Algeria, protagonist of the open dialogue with the Muslim world, he learned surprisingly with a phone call, while on his way to celebrate Mass, that Pope Francis he had read his name on the list of 21 new cardinals at the Angelus as he tells Vatican Radio – Vatican News. He will be one of the 21 prelates who will receive the cardinal’s hat on 8 December in Rome and therefore also the first cardinal marathon runner, given that next year he will participate in the New York marathon. Appointed archbishop of Algiers in 2021, the Dominican was a lawyer before being ordained a priest in 2001. He has been in Algeria since 2002, first at the Dominican convent of Tlemcen, in the diocese of Oran, then as vicar general of the diocese in 2005. Elected prior provincial of the Dominicans of France, returned to France in 2010. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him head of the diocese of Oran on 1 December 2012. He had already participated in the 1989 New York marathon with a personal time of 2 hours and 52 minutes which is not just a banal performance. On the contrary. “Running is a way to listen to yourself and to overcome your limits – Monsignor Vesco always repeats – Running is freedom and also transforms urban routes into spaces for reflection and personal growth. It is not just a physical activity, but an inner journey that allows you to explore your abilities and connect with the surrounding universe.” Body and spirit, for a balance that sport (even sport) allows you to achieve and which has seen Monsignor Vesco always engaged in the ranks of Athletica Vaticana, the Vatican sports association that promotes running events and physical activities for members of the Church. He fondly remembers Athletica Vaticana’s participation in the Mediterranean Games in 2022 in Oran, where sport played a fundamental role in transmitting a message of peace. Sport as a means of dialogue between religions is a powerful message, especially at a time when society seeks to build bridges rather than barriers. “As an adult, running burst into my life and I took part in the Berlin half marathon and the marathons in Lyon, Paris and New York where, way back in 1989, I achieved my record – he said some time ago on the eve of a half marathon Roman – I discovered that the motivation that drives you to run a marathon is not competition with others but listening to yourself. Today the freedom to run remains within me. Just wear runner’s shoes for the internal and external universe to overcome its limits. Even though I am no longer an athlete, when I can and when my joints allow it, I like to run and I am very happy to belong to the running representative of the Holy See, sharing its meaning. I find the idea of Athletica Vaticana very beautiful because the proposal is not only to run, to practice a sport together, but also to give a very concrete testimony of dialogue, friendship, hope and peace through running”