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(ANS – Rome) – Michele Capasso, engineer-Neapolitan architect, has created over 500 works in various countries around the world. Ing. Capasso was strongly struck by the massacres against innocent victims in the territories marked by the war. It decides to suspend its activity and its professional commitment, first to help the people of the former Yugoslavia and, then, especially to build dialogue and peace. Today the "Mediterranean Prize 2016 – Special Edition for Peace Education" is delivered to the rector major, Don Ángel Fernández Artime.

How is the Fondazione Mediterraneo born?

The Mediterranean Foundation was founded more than 27 years ago, by the initiative of the Presidents of various countries, mainly interested in creating a space of peace, against war and against conflicts. From that moment we have committed ourselves to promoting dialogue through a thousand initiatives involving young people, children, women, migrants and education. Initiatives, these, based on concrete, as our motto reads: "To transform love for power, in the Power of Love".

Who receives this prize?

This award is for the sobriety, for the quality of the work, for the concreteness. The winners receive the prize if they do something for the common good; It was considered, after the Nobel Prize, the most important prize. They have received this award many personalities, in the religious field, Cardinal Etchegaray, Cardinal Martini, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and many others, who have committed themselves to peace.

This award is a special prize. Why?

Every twenty years there must be a special edition of the prize, which foresees a theme not covered by the regulation, for which one chooses and seeks a personality that can prove to be the protagonist of that theme. With great joy and pleasure, finding also the sharing of the Arab and Islamic world, this prize, special Edition for Peace, was attributed to Don Ángel Fernández Artime, for what the Salesians have done in the world.

Why did you choose to give the prize to the rector major?

The Salesians participate in our commitment to peace, for dialogue. The people who work with us have entertained many relationships with the Salesians in the world. In These 27 years we have known the value of the work of the Salesians. Above all, we have enjoyed their humble commitment to young people, to those who need it. We want to follow the identity of doing. We want to be for what we do, not to be for what we say. The Salesians are the operative arm of that Christianity which applies the gospel every day.

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Mario Molinari's "Totem of peace" becomes the symbol of the Salesians of Don Bosco.
The rector major, Don Angel Fernandez Artime, in receiving the work of the sculptor Molinari on the occasion of the "Mediterranean Prize special edition 2016" attributed to him, emphasizes the importance of "positive", of living life with the "colors of hope, of Faith and Joy ".
In front of an audience of over 400 students of the Pontifical Salesian University confirms the topicality of the educational method of Don Bosco especially in the face of the great challenges of today's world.

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On the occasion of the ceremony of the academic year 2016-2017 of the Pontifical Salesian University, President Capasso was able to inaugurate, with the president of the Senate Pietro Grasso, the 2nd Volume of the "ALBO d'oro" of the Pontifical Salesian University.
Thanks to Don Mauro Mantovani, magnificent rector, to the rector major Don Angel Fernandez Artime and to all the Salesians in the world for their commitment to the education of young people and peace.
Before the ceremony the rector major D. Angel Fernandez Artime celebrated the mass in the Church of St. Mary of Hope.
The President Grasso held the inaugural titled "Educating the Legality and active and responsible citizenship".

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It was held in Rome at the Salesians' Directorate General, a cordial meeting between the President Capasso - accompanied by Pia Molinari - and the rector major of the Salesians D. Angel Fernández Artime.
On this occasion, joint initiatives have been agreed to spread the teaching of Don Bosco and promote the education of young people to peace.
At the meeting he participated by telephone (from Subiaco) sister Maria Pia Giudici (FMA-House of Prayer "San Biagio").

(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.