The “Gino Bartali” of the Vatican at the cycling world championships

Little Gino Bartali grow in the shadow of the Dome. For the first time there will also be a cyclist from Athletica Vaticana-Vatican Cycling, on Sunday 25 September, at the start of the elite road test of the Cycling World Championships in Wallongong in Australia. “Rien John Schuuruis, 40, will ride to testify to the values ​​of brotherhood and inclusion that are typical of cycling and that convinced the official Vatican sports association to take to the streets”, announce the Pope’s athletes. “The participation of Rien Schuuruis – emphasizes Athletica Vaticana – is a ‘first time’ of historic significance for the official Vatican team, for cycling, for the entire sporting movement and for Australia itself which will host, in the coming years, some of the most significant events which will culminate with the Brisbane Olympic Games in 2032 “. The small representative who will be in Wallongong for the World Championships will live a concrete experience of fraternity and solidarity together with Caritas Australia, sharing the program with the First Australians (Kinchela boys home) and a sports initiative with children. The Vatican delegation will be welcomed by the archbishop of Sydney, Monsignor Anthony Colin Fisher, and by the bishop of Wollongong, Monsignor Brian Mascord. Athletica Vaticana-Vatican Cycling will participate in the cycling world championships, thanks to the experiences of sporting fraternity lived, in June and July, in Malta for the Athletics Championships of the 18 Small States of Europe and in Oran in Algeria for the Mediterranean Games. On this occasion, Pope Francis, in a message, named Athletica Vaticana “ambassador of the Pope” among sportspeople, precisely because “he concretely testifies, on the streets and in the midst of the people, to the supportive face of sport”.