VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Seminarians, Vatican guards, Olympic champs, regular children and people with disabilities all took part in a “Race of Faith” on Sunday, Oct. 20 to highlight how the Church can help foster a world of sport that better respects human dignity.

Organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, a 100-meter, three-lane tartan track was temporarily laid down along the main boulevard leading right to the edge of St. Peter’s Square.

A few hundred people showed up for the three-hour program featuring relay races and testimonies of faith. It was part of the council’s promotion of the Year of Faith.

Msgr. Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, head of the council’s “Culture and Sport” section, said the council wanted to relay race not just because of St. Paul’s frequent analogies of the faith life being like a race but because passing a baton onto others is also “just like passing on the faith from person to person.”