Father Joan Botam receives the ICIP Peace in Progress Award

On Tuesday, April 12, ICIP presented the 2015 Peace in Progress Award to Capuchin friar Joan Botam, promoter of numerous initiatives linked to peace and ecumenism, at a ceremony that took place at the Parliament of Catalonia. He received the award for being one of the main proponents of pacifism in Catalonia and a strong advocate of interfaith dialogue and religion as a source of peace.
The ceremony was chaired by the President of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency, Raül Romeva, and ICIP president Rafael Grasa. It was attended by the honoree and by numerous representatives of various religious and spiritual traditions of Catalonia, including the Archbishop of Urgell and the co-Prince of Andorra, Joan Enric Vives.
Over a hundred people were in attendance. The opening speech was delivered by ICIP president Rafael Grasa, who highlighted the characteristics that make Father Botam deserving of the ICIP Award: “The ability to show the multiple interconnected dimensions of peace, the coherence of his ethical, religious and civic convictions, his great ability to generate dialogue (…) and his fruitful work in favor of interfaith dialogue.” Then professor and activist Arcadi Oliveres commented on Botom’s personality, in a speech in which he described the Capuchin friar as a peacemaker “with a conscience, willpower, ability and commitment,” an “exceptional pioneer of interfaith dialogue” and a person “who we can be grateful to for introducing us to peace without adjectives.”
A video about Joan Botam was screened during the event and the Capuchin friar received the award from the President of the Parliament. In his word of thanks – read by his friend Joaquim Vilar – Father Botam underlined the numerous ties he has maintained with peace, from his childhood to his entry in the Catalan Capuchin order, his participation in Pax Christi or his role in the events of the “Caputxinada,” in 1966. “Peace is the great utopia that grabs and seduces you,” he said. And he defended peace as a means to being “more grass roots, more democratic, more of a builder.” Botam dedicated the award to his family, the Capuchin community and Catalonia.
In closing the event, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, defended “dialogue, negotiation and understanding, as exemplified by Father Botam,” as well as “disobedience as a guarantee of building, accomplishment, moving forward.” Then the President of the Parliament, Carme Forcadell, stated that “Catalonia has been, and is, a country that promotes peace,” and she highlighted the commitment to peace of the Parliament, as demonstrated by, for example, the creation of the International Catalan Institute for Peace. Forcadell also stressed the implication and persistence of Joan Botam with respect to interfaith dialogue, a key issue “to fight the ignorance that feeds fear and fuels hatred, as some are doing today in Europe, equating terrorist violence with a religion.”
The ICIP Peace in Progress Award is granted annually and consists of public recognition, a sculpture created by Nobel Peace Prize winner, activist and artist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, called “Porta del Sol,” and a monetary award of 4,000 euros.
Complete video of the event
Image gallery