Vatican sponsors relay race, cricket club

The Pontifical Council for Culture is strongly promoting participation in an October 20 “100-metre sprint for faith,” a relay race that will end in St. Peter’s Square during the Pope’s Sunday audience. 

The race—which will be televised, and include a number of high-profile athletes—is a way to “emphasize the importance of sport as a cultural asset of education and spiritual value,” the Pontifical Council for Culture argues. 

In another sports-related development, the same Pontifical Council has announced formation of a Vatican cricket club, composed primarily of priests and seminarians from countries where the game is popular. 

The organization of the team was reported driven by John McCarthy, the Australian ambassador to the Holy See, who is an enthusiastic player.