The Athletica Vaticana team consists of 60 athletes, including nuns, priests, Swiss Guards, museum workers, carpenters and maintenance workers.
The youngest team member is a 19-year-old Swiss Guard, and the oldest a 62-year-old professor of the Vatican Apostolic Library.
Two asylum seekers – Jallow Buba, a 20-year-old Gambian, and Anszou Cissè, a 19-year-old Senegalese – have also been registered as honorary members.
The team hopes to compete in international events, including the Olympics.
CONI president Giovanni Malago praised the team’s formation, describing it as a “wonderful initiative”.
“It will be necessary to affiliate with other federations,” he told Vatican News.
“I’m sure this will happen, today we have started a courageous and winning start up.”
The deal struck with CONI means the team is able to take part in national and internationally sanctioned events and is allowed access to Italian national coaching and medical facilities.
Athletes wearing navy track suits with the Holy See’s crossed keys seal attended the launch.
The team’s first official event will be the Corsa di Miguel on Sunday, a 10-kilometre race in Rome honouring Miguel Sanchez, an Argentine distance runner who disappeared during the country’s dictatorship.
