The Holy See’s Pavilion at the Expo Milano 2015 won the first prize for pavilions under 2000 square metres that best represented the theme of the Expo: «Feeding the planet. Energy for Life.»
The Expo ended October 31, after running in the northern Italian city for 6 months. “It is the recognition of the spirited work done during these six months,” said Msgr. Luca Bressan, who serves as an Episcopal Vicar for the Archdiocese of Milan. “It also shows that the communicative power of Pope Francis has been able to make inroads in the large public square which was the world Expo.”
Monsignor Bressan accepted the award from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), which promotes the Universal Expositions.
The Pavilion of the Holy See expounded on the double meaning of food as nourishment for both the body and the soul, developing the two biblical quotes «Not by bread alone» and «Give us this day our daily bread,» which were translated into 13 languages on the outside of the Pavilion.
A video tour of the Holy See Pavilion is available at this link.
Inside the Pavilion, five scenes represented the following four themes: Ecology, the economy-fair trade, education and religion-theology.
The exhibition also featured two classic works of art: Tintoretto’s Last Supper and Rubens’ Institution of the Eucharist.
During the Exhibition, 1.8 million people visited the Holy See’s Pavilion, and 150,000 Euros were collected for women and children in Middle Eastern refugee camps. The Pavilion also distributed 1 million magnets bearing the picture of Pope Francis, as well as 10,000 copies of Laudato Si’.
The next Universal Expo will take place in 2020 in Dubai.
