Cardinal Etchegaray was awarded the Vittorino Colombo Prize, named after a politician who founded the Italian-Chinese Institute.
The Basque-French cardinal was the first representative of the Catholic Church to be received by the People´s National Assembly, in Beijing in 1981, and the first cardinal to celebrate Mass in public in the Chinese cathedral.
He is former president of the Pontifical Councils for Justice and Peace and «Cor Unum,» and of the Central Committee of the Jubilee Year.
