2025 International Award "Francis of Assisi and Carlo Acutis for an Economy of Fraternity"
Deadline: 28 February 2025
The International Award 'Francis of Assisi and Carlo Acutis for an Economy of Fraternity' was established by the Archbishop of Assisi on 10 October 2020, the day of the Beatification of Carlo Acutis. It aims to encourage fraternal economic projects 'from below', starting from the difficult conditions faced by our smallest and suffering brothers and sisters. The Award aims to inspire, in a generative way, people with limited economic possibilities, especially young people under 35 years of age and in the poorest regions of the world, to come together ('Fratelli tutti' - Brothers All) and present, as change-makers, a specific and valid project, submitted to the careful examination and judgement of an Evaluation Committee, to benefit and meet the concrete needs of the most deprived and needy in their midst.
As Pope Francis has continually expressed in his pontificate, St Francis of Assisi is an inspiration for a new relationship with our poor and marginalized sisters and brothers: 'St Francis offers us an ideal and, in a sense, a program. For me, who took his name, he is a constant source of inspiration' (Letter for the "Economy of Francis" event, 1 May 2019). This is why we believe that from Assisi, the words of Jesus from the Crucifix of San Damiano should resound today in a world stricken by the pandemic: 'Go, Francis, repair my house which, as you see, is falling into ruin.' By stripping himself of his clothes and material possessions before his father, Pietro Bernardone, and the then Bishop of Assisi, Guido, the young Francis initiated, through the concrete sign of his nakedness, an economy different from that of his earthly father: trust in providence as a generative instrument for the good of all and, above all, of the poorest and most abandoned. Thus Francis could exclaim: 'From now on I will say: "Our Father who art in heaven" and no longer "Father Peter Bernardone"'.
nspired by Saint Francis, Blessed Carlo Acutis, who is buried in Assisi in the Shrine of the Dispossession, is himself an example of an 'economy of fraternity', especially for young people. His profoundly Eucharistic spirituality was manifested in his love for the poor, characterised not only by charity, but by closeness and friendship with the needy, something Pope Francis has often encouraged in our dealings with the poor. 'What alone will make us truly beautiful in God's eyes,' Carlo tells us, 'is the way we love God and our neighbour.
In a world shaken by pandemics and war and confronted with so many other challenges, the international award 'Francis of Assisi and Carlo Acutis, for an economy of fraternity' is meant to be an inspiration of holiness, beauty and goodness through new models of economics, necessary for these times.