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MICHELE CAPASSO: "THE SALESIANS ARE THE OPERATIVE ARM OF CHRISTIANITY"

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Roma  ||  19 October 2016
Iniziative (EN) - Don Bosco - Power of Love

(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.