2016 (EN)

(ANS – Roma) On the occasion of the Inauguration of the new academic year of the Salesian Pontifical University (UPS), on Wednesday 19 October, the "Mediterranean 2016 Award - Special Edition for Peace Education", attended by the President of the Senate Pietro Grasso, will be presented to the Rector Major of the Salesians, Don Ángel Fernández Artime, Grand Chancellor of UPS.
Considered one of the most significant on an international level, the prize of the "Fondazione Mediterraneo" has been awarded in previous editions to important personalities such as King Juan Carlos of Spain, King Hussein of Jordan, Presidents Anibal Cavaco Silva and Abu Mazen, Leah Rabin, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, and others.
The motivations communicated by the President of the Fondazione Mediterraneo, Prof. Michele Capasso, who will present the Award, reads:

For the activity in favour of peace and harmony among the peoples of the world, carried out by the Salesian Family, particularly in places where war is raging: here the Salesians are often the only point of reference for men and women of different faiths. The Rector Major Don Ángel Fernández Artime is a true' builder of Peace'; with his role as a Guide and Master of the entire Salesian Family - the Salesians, the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and Cooperators - he nurtures and spreads with humility and complicity hope in the young people who have to place themselves towards life as' Hunters of the Positive' and spread the' True'.

It should also be noted that during the Academic Act of 19 October also the Rector of UPS, Prof. Mauro Mantovani, will receive from the Fondazione Mediterraneo, on behalf of the University, the Prize "Bearer of Peace" 2016,"recognition of the role taken on by the entire Salesian Pontifical University for the education of young people in peace and coexistence among different peoples, in the perspective - according to the expressions of Pope Paul VI - of the new'.
In its main headquarters of the "Museum of Peace" in Naples, the Fondazione Mediterraneo has also set up 107 large videowalls through which it tells the history and actions of Salesians around the world.
Finally, it should be noted that the Mediterranean Award - in its "special edition" for the twentieth anniversary - consists of the original work "Totem della Pace" by the sculptor Mario Molinari, from Turin, very much linked to the figure of Don Bosco, a detail that reinforces even more the symbolic meaning of the Prize.