Vatican denounces Paris-Dakar race as irresponsible

The Vatican newspaper on Wednesday strongly condemned the Dakar Rally as a bloody, irresponsible, violent and cynical attempt to impose questionable Western tastes on the developing world. An editorial in L'Osservatore Romano titled "Paris-Dakar: The Bloody Race of Irresponsibility", slammed the race a day after South African motorcycle rider Elmer Symons died during the fourth stage in the Morocco desert.

"The Paris-Dakar, a race which many classify as a sporting event, in reality has very little to do with healthy competition," the editorial said.

"The trail of blood which grows longer from year to year on the route of the race instead underscores the undeniable component of violence that lies behind every attempt to export Western models to human environments and ecosystems that have little to do with the West," it said. The Vatican newspaper said the race and its sponsors betrayed a "cynicism" that ignores local realities. It called the wrecks of cars, trucks and motorcycles abandoned in the desert "rusty monuments to irresponsibility". Reuters