By Elise Harris
Vatican City, May 5, 2016 / 12:05 pm
Pope Francis is set to receive on Friday the prestigious Charlemagne Prize for his efforts in the unification of Europe, drawing major leaders on the continent such as the King of Spain to the celebration.
Founded in 1950, the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen is "the oldest and best-known prize awarded for work done in the service of European unification," according to the organization's website.
The announcement of Pope Francis' selection for the 2016 prize was initially made in December 2015. He is the second religious leader to receive the prize, the first being St. John Paul II, who in 2004 was awarded an "extraordinary" version of the prize, while the ordinary version was given to Irish politician Patrick Cox.
According to a communique from the Prize Committee when Francis' nomination was announced, the Pope was selected due to the "message of hope and encouragement" he has sent at a time when "many citizens in Europe are seeking orientation."
In recent years "Europe has experienced great weaknesses, crisis and setbacks" which have severely delayed "all the achievements of the European process of integration," the communique read.
Pope Francis, it continued, "is a witness for a community based on values which include a sense of humanity, the protection of resources and dialogue between cultures and religions at a European level."
The Pope is scheduled to receive the prize in the Sala Regia of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace May 6 in the presence of Martin Schulz, president of European Parliament; Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, who will offer brief remarks before the Pope himself speaks.
The prize was founded by Dr. Kurt Pfeiffer as the progress made toward West European integration in the aftermath of the World Wars and the Cold War fell into crisis.
As a response to widespread calls for European unity by the citizens of Aachen in 1949, Pfeiffer "cleverly took advantage of the symbolism of the approaching Christmas season, and the Jubilee year that had been announced by the Pope, to suggest an 'annually awarded prize for the most valuable contribution to West European understanding,'" according to the organization's website.
The 1950 Jubilee was called by Venerable Pius XII, who that year defined the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.
In March 1950 the Association of the Charlemagne Prize was officially founded, and on May 18 the prize was conferred for the first time to the founder of the Pan-European Movement, Count Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi.
While the ceremony for awarding the prize is typically held in Aachen on the Feast of the Ascension, an exception was made for Pope Francis, who requested to hold festivities in the Vatican. The same was done for St. John Paul II when he received an extraordinary version of the prize.
Other guests present at the conferral of Pope Francis' prize will include past winners such as Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio community; King Felipe of Spain; Dalia Grybauskaite, president of Lithuania; and Patrick Cox, former president of European Parliament.
Other former recipients include former French president of François Mitterrand; former German Chancellor Helmut Khol in 1988; former U.S. president Bill Clinton in 2000; and the current German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008.
Events surrounding the conferral of the prize begin May 5 with a discussion on the State of the European Union in the Vatican's Capitoline Museums.
The meeting is being organized by the Charlemagne Foundation and by the European University Institute of Florence in collaboration with the European Parliament.
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Present for the discussion will be the three European institutional leaders – Schulz, Juncker and Tusk – as well as Italy's Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, who will give the welcoming address.
The three leaders will have a private meeting with Pope Francis before his reception of the prize. Merkel will also meet with the Pope for a private audience before the conferral ceremony.
Francis' conferral ceremony will be opened by Marcel Philipp, mayor of Aachen, while Juergen Linden of the Charlemagne Foundation will read the aloud the reasons why the Pope has been selected for the award.
In his own speech, Pope Francis will likely touch on widespread topics related to his addresses before European Parliament and the European Council during his visit to Strasbourg Nov. 25, 2014, such as immigration and care for the poor.
In his two dense, lengthy speeches that day Pope Francis indicated what was for him a path toward unity for the European Community that was focused on attention to the weak and marginalized, the poor and children who are at risk of being aborted.
When he spoke to European Parliament, in particular, Francis stressed that "the time has come for us to abandon the idea of a Europe which is fearful and self-absorbed."
The moment has arrived, he said, "to work together in building a Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the human person, around inalienable values."
