On May 5, 2026, 21 men in formation for the priesthood at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati participated in the 28th annual Flying Pig Marathon. Emerson Wells, a seminarian at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, placed second overall with a personal best marathon time of 2:23:52, averaging 5 minutes, 30 seconds per mile for the entire 26.2 mile race. The seminarian-led Verso l’Alto Track Club team won first place in the 4-person relay, clocking a finish time of 2:30:39 and outstripping the second place relay team by nearly 20 minutes. The article highlights the integration of physical excellence with spiritual devotion, as the seminarians combine rigorous athletic training with their priestly formation, running under the banner of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, whose Italian phrase “Verso l’Alto” translates to “To the heights.” While the integration of physical fitness and spiritual life is commendable in principle, the uncritical invocation of a “canonized” saint by the post-conciliar usurper raises serious questions about the supernatural legitimacy of such devotions.
The Principle: Bodily Excellence Ordered Toward God
The Catholic Church has always recognized the dignity of the human body and the value of physical discipline when properly ordered toward supernatural ends. The Apostle St. Paul himself wrote: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19-20). The pursuit of physical excellence, when subordinated to the glory of God and the sanctification of the soul, is not merely permissible but praiseworthy.
The seminarians’ devotion to running, their discipline in training, and their explicit intention to offer their athletic efforts for spiritual intentions—such as Wells offering his race for the perpetual vows of the Children of Mary sisters—reflects a sound Catholic understanding that all human activities, including athletics, can and should be directed toward the worship of God. As the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches, man is composed of body and soul, and both are to be offered to God.
The Invocation of St. Pier Giorgio Frassati: A Problematic Patron
The article states: “St. Pier Giorgio Frassati, canonized by Pope Leo XIV on Sept. 7, 2025, made the Italian phrase Verso l’Alto known around the world.” This sentence, while presented as a simple factual statement, contains a profound theological problem that cannot be overlooked.
Pier Giorgio Frassati was “canonized” by Robert Prevost, the usurper who illegitimately occupies the Chair of Peter under the name “Leo XIV.” As the Church has taught through her immutable doctrine, the power of the papacy belongs solely to the legitimate successor of St. Peter. A manifest heretic—and the post-conciliar usurpers, beginning with John XXIII, have proclaimed heresies through the documents of the Second Vatican Council and its aftermath—cannot exercise any jurisdiction in the Church. St. Robert Bellarmine teaches: “A Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church” (De Romano Pontifice, II:30).
Furthermore, the process of “canonization” employed by the post-conciliar structures is fundamentally corrupted. The abolition of the office of the Devil’s Advocate (Promoter of the Faith) by Paul VI in 1983, the reliance on “historical-critical” methods that deny the supernatural, and the political motivations behind many modern “canonizations” render these acts null and void in the eyes of the true Church. What the conciar sect calls “canonization” is, in reality, a mere administrative act without any supernatural efficacy or infallible guarantee.
Therefore, while Pier Giorgio Frassati may have been a pious young man—and we do not deny the possibility of his personal holiness—the invocation of him as “Saint” and the use of his motto as a spiritual banner carries the taint of the conciliar apostasy. The seminarians, however sincere their intentions, are unwittingly placing their devotion under the patronage of a figure whose “sanctity” has been proclaimed by a false authority.
The Scapular and Marian Devotion: A Ray of Authentic Catholicism
Amidst the problematic elements, the article contains a genuinely Catholic detail: Emerson Wells wore the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel during the race. He stated: “I wear the scapular every day; it’s part of my devotional life.” And further: “I actually like having it on during runs because you can kind of see it’ll fly around quite a bit, and I’m reminded that Mary is the way and she’s the perfect exemplar of what it means to be truly devoted to God and contemplation.”
This is sound Catholic piety. The Brown Scapular is a sacramental of the true Church, approved by the pre-conciliar Magisterium, and associated with the promises of Our Lady to St. Simon Stock. The scapular signifies consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary and participation in the spiritual merits of the Carmelite Order. Its use by seminarians is commendable and reflects the authentic Marian devotion that characterized the Church before the conciliar revolution.
However, one must note the irony: while the seminarians faithfully wear the scapular, they do so within the context of a formation that is overseen by the conciar structures. The question arises: do these seminarians understand the full implications of the scapular promises? Do they grasp that true devotion to Mary demands fidelity to the integral Catholic faith, including the rejection of the modernist novelties that have infiltrated the Church? The scapular is not a talisman that guarantees salvation regardless of one’s faith; it is a sign of consecration that presupposes living faith and obedience to the true Church.
The Integration of Physical and Spiritual: A Correct Principle, A Flawed Application
The seminarians articulate a correct principle: “You can be excellent in a given activity and excellent in your faith. They’re not exclusive to each other, but actually mutually affirming.” David Adamitis stated: “When we strive to have perfection in those areas of physical health and strength, it should really encourage us to have greater care for what matters the most, and that’s our soul and our union with God.”
This echoes the teaching of the Church Fathers and the perennial philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that the virtue of temperance, which governs the care of the body, is ordered toward the higher goods of the soul. The body is not to be neglected or abused, but trained and disciplined so that it may serve as an instrument of virtue. The ancient maxim *mens sana in corpore sano* (a sound mind in a sound body) has always been understood by the Church as subordinate to the supernatural end of man: union with God through grace.
However, the application of this principle within the context of the conciar seminary system raises concerns. The seminarians of Mount St. Mary’s are being formed according to the post-conciliar program, which emphasizes “pastoral” concerns over doctrinal precision, “community” over individual sanctification, and “dialogue” over the proclamation of unchanging truth. Can a seminarian formed in such an environment truly understand what it means to “glorify God” in the full Catholic sense? The glorification of God, as taught by the pre-conciliar Church, requires the profession of the true faith, the offering of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the traditional Roman Rite, and the rejection of all heresy and innovation. If the formation received at Mount St. Mary’s includes the errors of Vatican II—religious liberty, ecumenism, the “evolution” of dogma—then the physical excellence of the seminarians, however impressive, is built upon a foundation of sand.
The Verso l’Alto Track Club: Evangelization or Recruitment?
The article describes the Verso l’Alto Track Club as open to “all local Catholic men (with a qualifying 5k time of 18 minutes)” and aimed at “bringing Catholic high school students together so that they can have a sense of a greater community.” The goal is that “these high school students can see, ‘As I get older and I eventually graduate high school, I can still pursue running at a high level and stay Catholic.'”
This language reveals the conciar mentality: the emphasis on “community,” “belonging,” and “staying Catholic” as opposed to the traditional Catholic emphasis on conversion, sacrifice, and the pursuit of sanctity. The Track Club is presented as a means of retaining young Catholics within the fold—but which fold? The fold of the true Church, which demands separation from the world and its maxims? Or the fold of the conciar sect, which seeks to accommodate itself to the world and its values?
The phrase “stay Catholic” is particularly revealing. It implies that being Catholic is merely a matter of identity or affiliation, rather than a matter of faith, grace, and obedience. The true Catholic does not merely “stay Catholic”—he fights for the faith, he suffers for the truth, he sacrifices all for the love of God and the salvation of souls. The language of “staying” is the language of institutional preservation, not of spiritual combat.
The Silence on the Crisis in the Church
Perhaps the most striking omission in the article is any mention of the crisis that has engulfed the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. There is no reference to the loss of faith, the collapse of vocations, the closing of seminaries, the emptying of churches, the apostasy of the hierarchy. Instead, the article presents a picture of seminarians happily training for marathons, winning races, and promoting “excellence”—all under the banner of a “saint” canonized by a usurper.
This silence is deafening. The Catholic Church in the United States, as throughout the world, is in a state of catastrophic decline. The conciar structures have emptied themselves of supernatural content, replacing the Most Holy Sacrifice with a “memorial meal,” the priesthood with a “ministry of service,” and the faith with a “spirituality of dialogue.” The seminaries that remain open are, for the most part, factories of modernist formation, producing men who are more adept at running marathons than at offering the Holy Mass, more skilled at “community building” than at preaching the Gospel of salvation.
The seminarians of Mount St. Mary’s may be sincere, their devotion to Mary genuine, their physical discipline admirable. But sincerity is not enough. Without the true faith, without the true Mass, without the true Church, their efforts—however noble in appearance—are ultimately directed toward a false altar.
Conclusion: The Heights to Which We Are Called
The motto “Verso l’Alto”—”To the heights”—is a beautiful expression of the Christian vocation. But what are the heights to which we are called? The heights of athletic achievement? The heights of physical excellence? No. We are called to the heights of sanctity, the heights of union with God, the heights of the Beatific Vision. And these heights can only be reached through the integral Catholic faith, the faith of all times, the faith that has been handed down from the Apostles and preserved by the true Church.
St. Pius X, in his encyclical *Pascendi Dominici Gregis*, warned against the modernists who “seek to climb to the heights” of a “new theology” that is in reality a betrayal of the faith. The true heights are those of Tradition, of the Magisterium, of the unchanging doctrine of Christ. Let the seminarians of Mount St. Mary’s—and all who read this—strive for these heights, and not for those which are merely human, however impressive they may appear.
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam—but only if the God we glorify is the true God, the God of Catholic Tradition, and not the god of the modernists.
Source:
Seminarians medal at Cincinnati’s Flying Pig Marathon (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 16.05.2026