The BAMBI 2024 in the “Our Earth” category will be awarded tonight to one of the most successful extreme mountaineers of our time: Reinhold Messner.
On Thursday, 10 November 2016, His Holiness Pope Francis was presented with the Bambi award, a German media prize, in Rome. Every year, Hubert Burda Media presents the Bambi awards in recognition of outstanding achievements. The presentation of the Bambi to the head of the Catholic Church will be shown on Thursday, 17 November during a live broadcast starting at 20:15 on the German public TV station ARD.
The Bambi was presented in the Apostolic Palace by Yusra Mardini. A Syrian swimmer who lives in Germany, she saved the lives of many people as she fled across the Mediterranean. After their inflatable boat was damaged and threatened to sink after the engine failed, she and her sister Sara swam alongside the vessel, pulling it for many kilometres before reaching the mainland.
The jury explained their decision to honour the Pope’s immense charity towards the world’s poorest people: “Pope Francis’ papacy has focused on alleviating the suffering of the poor and calling on humanity to be more helpful and compassionate in the face of an increasing global flow of immigrants.
People all over the world value his authenticity, his social commitment and his unfailing devotion to making the world a better place. In calling for greater tolerance and establishing a particularly close relationship with the public, he has succeeded in bringing people – especially the young – back to the church. We are honoured to present His Holiness Pope Francis with the ‘Millennium’ Bambi in recognition of his outstanding contribution to peaceful coexistence.”
Previous Millennium award winners include Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Helmut Schmidt, Muhammad Ali, Queen Rania of Jordan, Crown Princess Mary of Denmark and Queen Silvia of Sweden.
