Portugal: «We have to give more political value to hope» – Cardinal Tolentino Mendonça
Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education received the Ilídio Pinho award
Porto, 19 Dec 2023 (Ecclesia) – Cardinal D. José Tolentino Mendonça today received the Ilídio Pinho prize and said at the session held at Porto City Council that it is necessary to “give more political value to hope”.
“We will only properly honor the task that history represents if we accept to be builders of the history of the future, but for that, we have to give more political value to hope”, said the prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, citizen of Renascença .
D. José Tolentino Mendonça said that “witnesses, transmitters and mediators are needed for a collaborative dialogue between generations”, based on a “strong bond of the heart such as gratitude”.
“We need an inter-generational pact built around gratitude and not around resentment,” he maintained.
For the Madeiran cardinal, there are “immense epochal challenges” that society has to face, such as “the environmental crisis and the future of the planet” and “temptation that represent the radical visions that intend to promote improved versions of the human being and that run the risk rounding off the value of the human person, his dignity and freedom”.
The Ilídio de Pinho award aims to “honor an internationally recognized national citizen” and distinguished, in the first year in which it is recognized, Cardinal José Tolentino Mendonça.
For Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who chaired the session, the Portuguese cardinal is an “exceptional national symbol of the spiritual projection of the world”.
“Honoring Tolentino is also a tribute to Portugal”, said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, quoted by Renascença.
The Prize, awarded by the Ilídio Pinho Foundation, with a pecuniary value of 100 thousand euros, is symbolized by an exclusive medal designed by the architect Álvaro Siza Vieira.
public relations