Pope Francis receives the “Cinema for Peace” Award
By Salvatore Cernuzio
Jul 3 2023
Jaka Bizilj, founder of an international organisation that promotes values and change in the world through film, presents Pope Francis with the “Cinema for Peace” Award for his efforts over the past year and a half to support the people of Ukraine.
A “true man of peace” and a “diplomat of God” who “in silence” has knocked on every possible door in this year and a half of war in Ukraine to “bring freedom to the people”, to try to help people, to save children, to negotiate to bring prisoners of war home. A man who has sent aid and even ambulances to the country, who facilitated the creation of humanitarian corridors and who, on the first day of the attack, went to the Russian Embassy to contact President Putin in an attempt to stop the war as it began.
Recognition
It was by listing all of Pope Francis’ actions behind “the wild curtain of the war” in Eastern Europe that Jaka Bizilj, a Slovenian-born writer and producer, explained the reasons why he chose to award the Pope the honorary Cinema for Peace prize. Mr. Bizilj himself presented the award to the Pope on the afternoon of Tuesday, 27 June, in Santa Marta.
The award is a mark of recognition by the international organisation of the same name, which was established after the 11 September attack on the Twin Towers with the aim of influencing, through film, the perception and resolution of global social, political, and humanitarian challenges and opposing war and terrorism.
In 2008, the Cinema for Peace Foundation was born – an international non-profit organisation that promotes change and values through film, aiming to highlight inequalities and injustices while offering hope and solutions for a better future. In recent years, Cinema for Peace has supported a number of important causes and films featuring Hollywood actors and personalities such as the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela.
In memory of murdered children
Now, Pope Francis has received this “humble symbol”, presented with obvious emotion by Mr. Bizilj in the hall of Santa Marta where the icon of Mary untying knots can be seen.
The reason for the award is the “unique” humanitarian work carried out by the Bishop of Rome in favour of the victims of the war in Ukraine, beginning with the children. And the award is dedicated to all “the children killed” in the Eastern European country.
Above all, Mr. Bizilij explained to the Pope, it is in memory of a one-year-old boy who died in a Russian missile attack on 8 March 2022. The father, he said, attended Tuesday’s screening at the European University of a docufilm on Ukraine, Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, by director Evgeny Afineevsky. “He believes that his children are in heaven… in a better world”, said Mr. Bizilj.
‘I need you to pray for me’
This is a hope given to him by his Christian faith, but also by Pope Francis’ constant messages during these months of horror: “You are the who is giving so many people hope… It is such an honour to be able to give this to you. And, millions of people have so much hope because of you and all the parents who have lost their children believe their children are in heaven. You give people so much hope and inspiration,” the founder of Cinema For Peace remarked in English.
“A true diplomat of God,” he added, “we think you are the most important man of peace in the world, not only an example for Christians, but also for all people in the world”. , who, as always, asked for prayers for him: ‘And you, pray for me… I need you to pray strongly for me.”
Thanking Mr. Bizilj for the award, Pope Francis, as always, asked for prayers: “And you, pray for me,” he said, insisting on his “strong” need for prayers. – Vatican News
