The Bishop of Punta Arenas, Bishop Oscar Blanco, presented the Peace Prize to engineer Patricio Riquelme Valdés, a resident of Magallanes, in recognition of his testimony of faith and his service to the community.
The Peace Prize, a tradition that has been going on for 20 years in the diocese, is a way to congratulate those people who are a model of faith and commitment to the common good.
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On this occasion, at the last Mass of the year 2024, celebrated on December 31 at 7:00 p.m., the winner was Patricio Riquelme Valdés, 87 years old, an engineer from Santiago, born into a Catholic family and married for 61 years old with Nora Fagerström Fuentes, with whom he has two children.
In his professional life he had great acts of service, such as the recovery of the regions devastated by the 1960 earthquake in Valdivia.
Already in Punta Arenas, he served for 46 years in the Airports Directorate of the Magallanes Region, where he became the oldest official. His contribution was instrumental in the development of the infrastructure of the airports in the south of the country.
One of the most significant contributions to the community was the organization of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Punta Arenas, in 1987, as a member of the regional government and volunteer for the Catholic Church.
When presenting the recognition, Bishop Blanco highlighted the human and Christian values of Riquelme: “His vocation to serve in the Church, in culture and in civil society makes him worthy of such worthy recognition, an artisan of peace,” he says. The Austral Press.
“The Peace Prize, given to him by our diocesan Church, wants to honor his long career in Christian, family, professional and social life, as a missionary disciple of peace,” he said.
“Don Patricio is a great person, a testimony of how we should live our Christian and human life. His contribution to the Church, his family and society makes him worthy of this award, especially in a year that commemorates the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Chile and Argentina,” he added.
Upon receiving the award, the engineer said: “This recognition fills me with healthy pride, but it is not a personal task. My family, my friends and many people have been part of this journey. I have never sought awards; “What I have done was born from my heart,” he said.
Juliet Villar
I am a journalist, with a degree in communication from the National University of La Matanza in Argentina. I have work experience in non-governmental organizations. Since 2016 I have been dedicated to Catholic journalism, first at the Argentine Catholic Information Agency (AICA) and, since 2022, as ACI Prensa correspondent for Argentina, Chile, Uruguay and Bolivia.