The SPIRITUAL SOLIDARITY AWARD is a yearly award offered by ADYAN foundation. Through it, ADYAN encourages and honors people who work and devote their life to develop and strengthen various forms of solidarity and unity between people from different religions, especially in contexts of tension and violence.
In the framework of its 4th annual spiritual solidarity day, on October 30, 2010, ADYAN presented the 2010 spiritual solidarity award to Mgr Salim Ghazal, for his commitment to coexsitence, in times of war as in times of peace, for his life work in reconciliation and bringing back cohesion between religious communities in the south of Lebanon, for his witnessing to the common values in Christianity and Islam in service of man, and for his witnessing to confidance in man, or as he says to the belief of man in his brother man.
From the words of Mgr Ghazal
"This award, in all its meaning and symbols, is an award to each human being who knows the meaning of his human mission, and who endeavors to accoplish the elevated aims that God wanted for him."
"Religious extremism is not an indication of faith or deep spirituality, it is the contrary of that. Despite its display of external symbols and its incessant talk about religion, fanaticism is in reality an expression of spritual emptiness, and an unconscious effort to fill this internal void (...).
The spiritual dimension integrates in our relation with God our relation with the other whatever religion, race or nationality he belongs to. For that reason we find that Christianity and Islam make it imperative that our relation to God passes through the other, for how can a human love God if he does not love his neighbor? (...)
Any words of gratitude would limit this gratitude. Therefore I extend it through prayer, prayer for each person in their mission and life-work, prayer for the members of ADYAN and the Imam al Sadr Foundation, prayer for each person dedicating himself to be an apostle of peace, justice and love, prayer for each person that lives in darkness so that God may transform his heart and open his sight in order to give his life to goodness, justice and peace. A prayer to each person I worked with in the most difficult circumstances in proclaiming together that man is sacred, his rights are sacred, his freedom is sacred and his sacrality comes from God. "Blessed are the peace makers for they are called the sons of God". My invitation for my fellow Lebanese is that we all become peace makers, for Lebanon deserves from us all the goodness and all the love."
