The EWTN News article from March 24, 2026, reports that Cardinal Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, archbishop of Algiers, participated in the Rome Marathon, describing running as a “school of prayer” and highlighting interfaith “brotherhood” with his Muslim friend Khaled Boudaoui. It praises Vatican sports initiatives under “Pope Francis,” including a prayer box for “all faiths” and service to the poor framed as “universal brotherhood.” The article omits any reference to the Social Reign of Christ the King, the necessity of the Catholic Church for salvation, or the supernatural end of human suffering, instead promoting a naturalistic, inclusive humanism. This constitutes a radical rejection of integral Catholic doctrine and a manifestation of the post-conciliar apostasy.
The Naturalistic Reduction of Prayer and Asceticism
The cardinal’s claim that marathon running is a “school of prayer” epitomizes the Modernist substitution of naturalistic experience for supernatural grace. True prayer, according to Catholic doctrine, is a supernatural act requiring actual grace, the theological virtues, and the sacramental life. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that prayer is “the interpreter of our desires to God” (Summa Theologiae II-II, q. 83, a. 1), a spiritual communication elevated by charity, not a byproduct of physical exhaustion. The article’s framing of “going beyond our own strength” as a moment of prayer reduces the spiritual life to a psychological or physical metaphor, echoing the condemned errors of Lamentabili sane exitu (1907), which rejects the idea that “faith is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” (Proposition 25) or that “dogmas should be understood according to their practical function” (Proposition 26). The cardinal’s “leap of faith” in bodily weakness is a Pelagian illusion, ignoring that without sanctifying grace—obtained solely through the sacraments of the Catholic Church—no act can be supernaturally meritorious. This naturalism aligns with the “errors concerning natural and Christian ethics” condemned by Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1864), particularly the notion that “moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction” (Error 56). The article’s silence on the necessity of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacrament of Penance for spiritual sustenance exposes its bankruptcy.
Indifferentism and the Denial of Catholic Unity
The cardinal’s friendship with a Muslim and the description of the marathon as “a race of brotherhood” openly propagate religious indifferentism, a heresy repeatedly condemned by the pre-conciliar Magisterium. Pius IX’s Syllabus anathematizes the errors that “every man is free to embrace and profess that religion which… he shall consider true” (Error 15) and that “man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation” (Error 16). The article’s emphasis on “building bridges” and “universal brotherhood” echoes the conciliar document Nostra Aetate (1965), which contradicts the Catholic axiom Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus. St. Robert Bellarmine, defending the exclusive necessity of the Church, writes: “It is necessary for salvation to belong to the Church… because outside the Church there is no salvation” (De Ecclesia Militante, c. 2). The cardinal’s participation in an interfaith event without calling for the conversion of his Muslim friend to the one true faith is a scandalous negation of the Church’s missionary mandate. The Vatican’s prayer box, inviting “runners of all faiths” to submit intentions, is an explicit endorsement of the false equivalence of religions, condemned by Pius IX as the error that “the Catholic religion… may be placed in the same category with false religions” (Syllabus, Error 18). This indifferentism is a direct fruit of the “abomination of desolation” occupying the Vatican since the death of Pius XII.
The Apostasy of “Inclusion” and the Rejection of Christ’s Kingship
The article celebrates the Vatican sports team “Atletica Vaticana” for including migrants and non-Catholics, citing “Pope Francis’ example of inclusion.” This perverts the Catholic concept of charity, which is ordered to the salvation of souls and the Social Reign of Christ. Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Primas (1925) on the feast of Christ the King declares: “The Church… demands for itself… full freedom and independence from secular authority” and “the state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations.” The article’s model of “inclusion” instead subjects the Church’s mission to secular values of “community” and “attention to the disabled and the poor,” divorcing corporal works of mercy from their supernatural purpose. The vice president’s reference to “universal brotherhood—‘fratelli tutti’” invokes Bergoglio’s 2020 encyclical, which promotes a Masonic humanism that “places the human person at the center,” contrary to the Catholic principle that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, cited in Quas Primas). The article’s silence on the kingship of Christ over all nations—the central theme of Quas Primas—is damning. Pius XI warns that when “God and Jesus Christ… are removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The Vatican’s sports initiatives, by focusing on naturalistic “values” rather than the conversion of souls to Christ, are a practical implementation of the secularism Pius XI lamented.
The Corruption of Sacramental Grace and the Rise of Natural Religion
The cardinal, a Dominican friar, participates in a Mass for marathon participants, yet the article reduces the Eucharist to a mere “offering” of prayer intentions, devoid of its nature as the unbloody Sacrifice of Calvary. The prayer box initiative, where “runners of all faiths” place intentions, treats the Mass as a generic spiritual event, not the unique worship owed to the Most Holy Trinity. This aligns with the condemned errors of Lamentabili: “The sacraments merely serve to remind man of the presence of the ever-benevolent Creator” (Proposition 41). The article’s language—such as “we offered all of these intentions to the Lord during the Mass”—implies a natural religion accessible to all, contradicting the Council of Trent’s definition that the sacraments “confer grace” (Session VII, Canon 4). The cardinal’s “school of prayer” through running further suggests that grace can be found in bodily exertion, a Pelagian error condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis (1907). The absence of any mention of sin, judgment, or the need for sacramental confession exposes the modernist “dogmaless Christianity” Pius X identified as “the synthesis of all heresies.”
The Symptomatic Apostasy of Conciliar Structures
The entire event—a cardinal of the “conciliar sect” promoting interfaith “brotherhood” through sports—exemplifies the systemic rejection of Catholic doctrine since Vatican II. The use of the term “universal brotherhood” directly quotes Bergoglio’s Fratelli tutti, which promotes religious liberty and human dignity apart from Christ’s reign. This is the logical outcome of the “errors concerning the Church and her rights” condemned by Pius IX: the idea that “the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Syllabus, Error 55) has evolved into a Church that promotes secular values. The cardinal’s participation, sanctioned by “Atletica Vaticana,” demonstrates that the post-1958 hierarchy has fully embraced the “cult of man” denounced by Pius XI in Quadragesimo Anno (1931). The article’s tone—celebratory, inclusive, focused on “hope” and “service”—is the very “naturalistic and modernist mentality” that sedevacantist theology exposes. It is a symptom of the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15), where the Church’s mission is replaced by humanitarianism.
Conclusion: A Call to Reject the Neo-Church’s Apostasy
The article presents a cardinal of the conciliar sect promoting a “spirituality” that is entirely naturalistic, indifferentist, and devoid of the supernatural end of man. It contradicts Quas Primas by ignoring Christ’s Kingship, violates the Syllabus by endorsing religious liberty, and rejects Lamentabili by reducing prayer to psychological experience. The true Catholic response is not to “run with” the world but to “fight bravely under the banner of Christ the King,” as Pius XI urged. The faithful must flee the “neo-church” and its pseudo-saints, pseudo-clergy, and pseudo-spirituality, adhering instead to the unchanging Faith of the pre-1958 Church. The cardinal’s marathon is not a witness to hope but a spectacle of apostasy, where the “altar” is abandoned for the “track” of secular humanism.
Source:
From the altar to the track: Marathon-running cardinal highlights spirituality of sport (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 24.03.2026