Cycling, a papal passion over the past 100 years

Such doubts didn’t last long. By 1948, when Italian writer Giovannino Guareschi had created his popular fictional priest character Don Camillo — a fan and user of bicycles — no one doubted the complete compatibility of the cassock and cycling.

In the meantime, cycling had already become a popular sport. This is evidenced by the success of the Tour de France in 1903 and the Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) in 1909. This craze quickly spread outside the walls of the Vatican. However, until 2025, no one had yet dared to transform the steep, paved slopes of the Vatican Gardens into a cycle path, as they will this year. The Giro d'Italia will loop through the Vatican Gardens on its final stage in tribute to Pope Francis. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves …

Pius X (1903-1914), described by Guillaume Apollinaire as “the most modern European” of his time, saw an opportunity: Behind all the sporting passions that flourished during his era, there was something deeply Christian that the Church had to embrace.

It was the golden age of youth clubs, and Pius X was the first pope to bless an amateur race starting in Rome. His successor, Benedict XV (1914-1922), followed suit a few years later. From then on, cycling was seen as a virtuous activity, accessible to families.

On a bike, Christians discovered the value of truly pushing themselves, or the meaning of radical sacrifice, but without any of the warlike tendencies that were so popular at the time. Whether on cobblestones or asphalt, spectators understood that winning required a combination of individual initiative and team spirit.

However, the papal passion for cycling took on a whole new dimension with another pope, Pius XII (1939-1958). He is famous for commissioning the construction of a small chapel in 1948 on the heights of the Ghisallo Pass, the equivalent, for the Tour of Lombardy, of the legendary Galibier Pass of the Tour de France. He named the building “Our Lady of Cyclists.” 

Alongside the pontiff of World War II, a hero of the asphalt like no other demonstrated just how much cyclists were held in high esteem in the Vatican at the time: Gino Bartali, known as “Gino the Pious.”

This member of Catholic Action was as tough in the saddle as he was discreet off it. He was a champion of virtue and of a certain conservatism for Italians, who contrasted him with the very secular and whimsical Fausto Coppi, another cycling legend. And after Bartali's death, his family discovered that the two-time Tour de France winner had been keeping a secret.

In fact, Bartali had been one of the humble and silent servants of the weak and vulnerable in the Catholic Church's silent struggle against Mussolini's fascism and Hitler's Nazism during World War II. He used his bicycle to transport false papers for the Vatican, delivering them to certain monasteries to help Jewish families escape. Gino Bartali is now recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations” by Israel.

The sportsman, a Carmelite tertiary, was undoubtedly the pontiff's representative in the peloton. He was received in an audience in 1946 by Pope Pius XII at the start of the ninth stage of the Giro, which he won. In 1950, a jubilee year, the Giro d'Italia arrived in Rome, and Pope Pius XII decided to welcome the champions in person. However, this time the great Bartali was beaten by a stronger opponent: the Swiss Calvinist Hugo Koblet, the first non-Italian to win the Giro. In a gesture combining sportsmanship and a desire for ecumenical dialogue, the pontiff decided to bless both champions.

His successor, John XXIII (1958-1963), was not a sports-loving pope. Paul VI (1963-1978), on the other hand, was a fervent advocate of physical exercise and a worthy successor to Pius XII in this regard. He acknowledged that he had had a real passion for cycling since his early childhood. In 1964, he even gave a very inspiring speech, addressed specifically to the riders at the start of the Giro d’Italia, including the famous Felice Gimondi and Eddy Merckx:

A few years later, he spoke to the participants in the 1975 Tour of Sardinia, which, like the 1964 Giro, passed through St. Peter's Square in Rome. He once again reaffirmed his admiration for the discipline and fervor required by the practice of this sport.

His successor, John Paul I (1978), was also a passionate fan. “If sports are human, for us Italians the Giro d'Italia is umanissimo” (very human), said Albino Luciani when he was still Patriarch of Venice in 1972, symbolically giving the start of the 55th Tour of Italy.

Pope John Paul II (1978-2005), a great sportsman and amateur cyclist, took up the torch in a completely different way. His pontificate coincided with the first revelations about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling competitions, which brought the sport into disrepute.

The Polish pope made his mark on the cycling scene through his influence on a young Italian cycling team manager, Ivano Fanini. He suggested that Fanini name his team Amore e vita (“Love and Life” in Italian), because, in his view, sports are a powerful affirmation of these two Catholic principles when they are lived to the full. Fanini took the pope at his word.

Displaying a message of faith on their jerseys instead of a sponsor, gave them the air of an encyclical. Thus, the Amore e Vita team stood out in those years when the lure of money and the obsession with individual performance — even to the point of cheating — seemed to corrupt the beautiful sporting ideal once so beloved by Paul VI and Pius XII.

Ivano Fanini, a devout Catholic, even decided to add a pro-life message to his jersey for an entire season! The move was not particularly well received by the cycling world, but the man stood by his decision without hesitation, riding for the pope, who had been at the forefront of the pro-life movement during the final years of the 20th century.

More generally, Amore e Vita was an extraordinary team for deciding to give a second chance to athletes who had been banned for doping and who too often served as scapegoats in a sport where no one seemed to be clean anymore. On the contrary, Amore e Vita offered forgiveness once the punishment had been served.

Pope John Paul II met with Fanini more than 20 times. The Amore e Vita certainly doesn’t have the most impressive record in the history of cycling. But, active until 2021, it demonstrated the fighting spirit so appreciated by the public, for which a red jersey is often awarded today in stage races.

Since the end of John Paul II's pontificate, cycling has been less in the spotlight. Benedict XVI (2005-2013) is said to have preferred Formula 1. However, as soon as he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis (2013-2025) — a keen soccer fan — was asked to bless the pink jersey worn by the leader of the Giro d'Italia. While he didn’t have words as inspiring as those of Paul VI on the meaning of the race, the head of the Catholic Church insisted, in a completely different field, on the need to rethink urban transportation.

In Laudato Si', he called for an end to forms of transportation that generate pollution. In this encyclical, the Argentine pontiff also urged people to find creative alternatives. Bicycles seem to be a good candidate for limiting excessive and polluting energy consumption from hydrocarbons, while allowing for real mobility in cities. Shortly before his death, the pontiff even bought a bicycle with his own money for one of his colleagues in the Roman Curia, the French religious Mother Marie des Anges, after she broke hers.

The Church leader's defense of the “common home” appealed to cyclists, who often came to greet him. Slovenian sprint superstar Peter Sagan even presented the Argentine pope with a bicycle decorated in Vatican colors and his world champion jersey — the legendary rainbow jersey representing the five continents — during a visit in 2018. But perhaps he should have opted for a green jersey!

During his pontificate, Pope Francis had the Vatican join the International Cycling Union in 2021. By joining the cycling family, cyclists from the world's smallest state have been able to participate in several world championships and proudly wear the pope's gold and white colors in the middle of the peloton.

For now, Pope Leo XIV doesn’t seem to have a particular passion for cycling – unlike tennis, baseball, or horseback riding. We know from his former gym trainer that he has ridden stationary bikes at the gym. But the cycling world already seems to appreciate the American pontiff: a bike rental company in his hometown of Chicago, Divvy, has launched a range in the Vatican's colors to pay tribute to its pope.

Note: This is an updated and revised version of an article published in 2020.