I am happy to inform you that the Administrative Council of St. Matthew’s Foundation in Memory of Cardinal Van Thuân has decided to honor you with the Cardinal Van Thuân Prize, Solidarity and Development 2008, for the project “Akamasoa”. This is the first time that this award is being bestowed. I would like to offer you my congratulations and tell you how happy I am that the Foundation is thus recognizing this work which helps poor families in Antananarivo.
Pontificium Consilium
De Juxtitia et Pace
Rev. P. Pedro OPEKA, R.S.V.
Cite AKAMASOA Andralanitra
RN 2 – PK 8
B.P. 7010 Antananarivo 101
MADAGASCAR
October 10, 2008
Dear Father,
I am happy to inform you that the Administrative Council of St. Matthew’s Foundation in Memory of Cardinal Van Thuân has decided to honor you with the Cardinal Van Thuân Prize, Solidarity and Development 2008, for the project “Akamasoa”. This is the first time that this award is being bestowed.
I would like to offer you my congratulations and tell you how happy I am that the Foundation is thus recognizing this work which helps poor families in Antananarivo.
The bestowal of the Prize is scheduled to take place within the context of the celebrations that will commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, on December 10, 2008.
The celebrations will begin at 4:30 p.m. in the New Synod Hall at the Vatican with a commemorative meeting at which His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, will preside and at which Mr. Juan Somavia, Director General of the International Bureau of Work (BIT), will give a conference, in the presence of Cardinals of the Roman Curia, members of the Diplomatic Corps assigned to the Holy See, and experts in human rights.
At the end of the session, in the Paul VI Audience Hall, at 6:30 p.m., Pope Benedict XVI will then bestow the awards.
In addition to you, the Cardinal Van Thuân Prize, Solidarity and Development 2008 will be given to three other persons involved in humanitarian projects: to Fr. José Raul Matte, a Camillian priest and medical doctor, who has devoted his life to the assistance of lepers; to the University of Naples, which has promoted the foundation of a Faculty of Medicine at Gulu in northern Uganda; and, finally, to the “Gruppo Ercolini”, for a project of socio-cultural integration among young traveling people by means of rezoning within the municipality of Rome.
Doctor Cornelio Sommaruga, ex-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (CICR) will receive the Cardinal Van Thuân 2008 Prize.
The ceremony will be followed by a commemorative concert, directed by the eminent leader of the Spanish orchestra, Inma Shara. This will be the first time that a woman will direct an orchestra at the Vatican.
I would be grateful if you would let us know if you will accept this prize and, in the event of a positive response, if you would send us, before October 30, 2008, some photos (in jpg format) and some films (in digital format) about the project, its history, those involved, and the young people who have benefited from your work, so that they might be presented within the course of the ceremony.
Finally, I am happy to let you know that all the expenses of your trip to Rome will be taken care of by the St. Matthew’s Foundation.
As I await your response, which I hope will be positive, I assure you, dear Father, of my cordial best wishes in the Lord.
Renato Raffaele Cardinal Martino
Président
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