A marathon running Algerian bishop is
among the 21 new cardinals Pope Francis will create on December
8.
Jean-Paul Vesco, a 62-year-old Dominican and archbishop of
Algiers, competes for Athletica Vaticana.
The bishop has a personal best of 2 hours 52'00" on the 42.195
km obtained in 1989 at the New York marathon, an experience that
has remained etched in his memory, as has the experience of
running on the streets of Rome.
"He who runs prays twice," says the cardinal-elect.
"As a boy I had a plan to be an athlete. As an adult, then, I
took other paths but running burst into my life again and in New
York I achieved my personal best".
"The motivation in running these great distances - he explains -
is not the competition with others but listening to yourself.
"Running is freedom, because it transforms any path, even urban,
into wide spaces.
"Just putting on running shoes is enough for the interior and
exterior universe to overcome its limits. "Saint Augustine says
that singing is praying twice. I don't know what he would have
said if he had been a runner, but for me running is a place of
meditation and special interior availability".
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