Benedict XVI awarded the Premio Capri honoris causa
after having won it twice in 1992 and 2004
Translated and adapted from
Sept. 29, 2017
The ceremony to award prizes for the 34th edition of the annual ‘Premio Capri-San Michele’ literary awards in Italy takes place tomorrow, Sept. 30, in Anacapri.
[Anacapri, on the slopes of the island of Capri’s tallest peak, is the second town on the famous tourist island and the site of ancient Roman ruins as well as the famous Villa San Michele built by the Swedish writer Axel Munthe. The Premio Capri San Michele, which takes its name from the church of San Michele where it was born, is considered “one of the reference points for contemporary Italian culture and has striven to contribute to the appreciation of Italian books in its choices and the objectivity of its criteria in seeking to recognize what is elevated and true about the human condition, to understand what it is and imagine what it could be, such that diverse lifestyles, dialog and reaching out to each other may harmonize and to the measure of man.” It awards prizes to the best books in 30 categories of writing.]
Two books on Benedict XVI published in 2016 are among the prizewinning books:
Servitore di Dio e dell’umanità – La biografia di Benedetto XVI, a biography by theologian Elio Guerriero (Mondadori, 2016);, and
Joseph Ratzinger Benedetto XVI – Immagini di una vita, a pictorial biography by the journalists Maria Giuseppina Buonanno and Luca Caruso (Edizioni San Paolo, 2017).
Above all, the jury decided to award Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI a Premio Capri-San Michele
honoris causa “not just because of his relationship with the isle of Capri which started during the Second Vatican Council, followed by many serenely beautiful visits to the island; and for his precious thinking which is now part of the Premio Capri’s cultural patrimony, contained in his books
Svolta per l’Europa? (A turning-Point for Europe?), which won the Grand Prize in 1992, and for
Fede, Verità, Tolleranza, which won in 2004. It is also intended as a clear and heartfelt tribute on the occasion of his 90th birthday this year.”
[Both books qualified for the prize because they were written originally in Italian.]
Cardinal Ratzinger in Anacapri in Sept. 1992, when he won the first of his two Premio Capri awards. I think the man behind to the right is Mons. Josef Clemens, who was the cardinal's private secretary then.
On the website of the Premio Capri, I found a letter sent to Benedict XVI by Raffaele Vacca, president of the Premio Capri foundation, the day after he announced his renunciation of the papacy. It is a very beautiful letter that I shall translate and share here.
I remember a few well-illustrated articles I posted in PAPA RATZINGER FORUM about Cardinal Ratzinger's visit to Anacapri in 1992 - during which, if I remember right, it was while he was waking through the piazza pictured above, that two young boys who saw him suddenly screamed "It's the pope! It's the Pope!"... Time I think to start a thread putting together the wealth of anecdotes available about him...]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/10/2017 22:35]