Following their audience with Pope Francis, members of the judging committee for the 2025 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity share their belief in the importance of recognizing the extraordinary efforts people make to foster peace and fraternity.
By Devin Watkins
“Pope Francis is deeply concerned with the state of the world and the hunger of millions who are malnourished and searching for food in rubbish heaps, while the world spends massive amounts of money on manufacturing arms.”
Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, shared the Pope’s concern for the welfare of the poor, during a press conference held on Saturday.
The six members of the judging committee for the 2025 Zayed Award for Human Fraternity met with reporters at the offices of the Dicastery for Communication (our parent organization) soon after their audience with Pope Francis.
Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam, Secretary-General of the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, noted that this marked the 20th papal audience for groups linked to the Document on Human Fraternity, which Pope Francis signed in 2019 with Sheikh Ahmad Muhammad Al-Tayyeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar.
Each encounter with the Pope, he said, has offered him personal encouragement in his efforts to promote the values of human fraternity. “Our desire to continue on this path is always renewed when we meet with Pope Francis,” added Judge Abdelsalam.
Members of the 2025 Zayed Award committee (from left): Mohamed Abdelsalam, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Macky Sall, Patricia Scotland, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Cardinal Peter Turkson
The task of the judging committee, said Cardinal Peter Turkson, is to draw on the Pope’s message of hope and fraternity and consider around 100 candidates for the Zayed Award who express humanity’s desire for peace in a particular way in their own lives.
“As the Jubilee of Hope begins,” said the Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Science and Social Sciences, “we must remember not to be inundated by the throwaway culture and the darkness that surrounds us.”
Cardinal Turkson said the candidates could be called “Apostles of Hope,” who are trying to foster a message of fraternity in their own small and large ways.
According to Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Zayed Award for Human Fraternity allows the world to focus on people who are striving to lift the human spirit.
The award, she added, helps everyone recognize that peace “is not just a hope but a human reality and that people are working to achieve it.”
Macky Sall, former President of Senegal, acknowledged that our world is filled with selfishness, strife, and conflict.
Pope Francis, he said, offers instead a message of “hope and wisdom,” and encourages others to work for a world of peace.
With the Zayed Award, added Mr. Sall, the world is given a message of fraternity that cuts across religions and ethnicities to get to the goodness that fills humanity.
Several members of the judging committee recognized that young people today face a world filled with anxiety, with many worrying about things their parents took for granted.
“There are 700 million people—300 million of whom are on the African continent—who go to bed hungry, while so much is spent on arms,” lamented Dr. Okonjo-Iweala.
José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Former Prime Minister of Spain, noted that our historical moment has seen the most conflicts and open wars since the end of World War II.
“We need a new strategy and view for our world,” he said. “We greatly need to mobilize for peace.”
Pope Francis, added Mr. Zapatero, offers the world a “brave” message of hope, peace, and care for the poor and people who are suffering due to conflict. “We are one single human family,” he said. “All religions, all ideologies, all countries are one single humanity.”
Reflection on the meaning of fraternity, Cardinal Turkson said the word comes from the Greek term adelphos, which literally means “from the same womb.”
“It is impossible for people from the same womb to have different dignities,” said the Ghanaian-born Cardinal. “We all share that dignity, and we must respect the demands of our relationships. Human fraternity lays that basic foundation for our relationships.”
The Zayed Award for Human Fraternity, said Cardinal Turkson, is a reminder that everyone can seek to make the world a better place.
“Anyone can become a protagonist for peace,” he urged.
