His Beatitude Louis Raphael I Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Baghdad, Iraq, will receive the international “La Traglia – Ethnic Groups and Communities” award from the Italian city of Jelsi on 27 July. The prize, in its eighth edition this year, is awarded to those who played a distinguished role in the promotion and attention to tradition, the environment, the defence of human rights and the cultural and religious identity of small communities and ethnic groups.
Previous winners include the Sioux-Lakota chief Birgil Kills Straight, Tara Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Gino Strada (founder of Emergency). In 2015, a year after Pope Francis’ visit to the Italian region of Molise, where Jelsi is located, and reflecting his concern over the conflicts in the Middle East, the organisers of “La Traglia” wished to draw attention to the contemporary martyrdom of Christians in Iraq, Libya, Syria and Egypt, by presenting the award to Patriarch Sako, for his commitment to interreligious dialogue in favour of unity with the other Churches present in Iraq and with the Christians of the Middle East.
