The award ceremony for the Ambassadors to the Holy See Literary Award was held on the evening of 2 July at Palazzo Borromeo. This year’s award went to Piero Damosso, Tg1 journalist, editor-in-chief and curator of the Tg1 Dialogo column, for his book Può la Chiesa fermare la guerra? Un’inchiesta a sessant’anni dalla Pacem in terris, published in 2023 by Edizioni San Paolo.
His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, spoke at the event, taking the floor after the introductory greetings of Italian Ambassador Francesco Di Nitto and EU Ambassador Alexandra Valkenburg, co-presidents of the Award Jury. He emphasised the value of Pope John XXIII’s encyclical, describing it as a ‘testament’ and a ‘heritage to be preserved and nurtured’. The Secretary of State insisted on the importance of pursuing diplomacy in the face of conflict situations, and recalled the Holy Father’s pleas for people to be “artisans of peace”.
Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Antonio Tajani participated in the event with a written message of greeting in which he spoke of the Italian Government’s front-line commitment to peace. He also mentioned the decisive contribution by the Popes to world peace, in particular that of Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II during two particularly complex historical moments, as well as Pope Francis’ current “tireless efforts”.
Professor Paola Severino, President of the Luiss School of Law, who was interviewed by Damosso in the winning book, also participated in the event, holding a conversation with the author.
The Ambassadors to the Holy See Literary Award was launched five years ago on the initiative of a group of Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See and is aimed at authors of books published in Italian and intended for the general public that deal with themes relating to Christian culture and values, relations between Christian Churches and States, the history of the Churches and interreligious dialogue. The Award Jury is co-chaired by the Italian and EU Ambassadors to the Holy See, and is made up of the Ambassadors of Albania, Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Lithuania, North Macedonia, the Order of Malta, Portugal and Uruguay. This year, for the first time, the Jury awarded a special mention as ‘emerging writer’ to Rocco De Stefano, a copywriter born in 1986 and author of the book L’influencer di Dio, published by Tau Editrice.
