The Commission of the media of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference will this year award the “Catholic Prize for Communication” to the journalist and theologian Josef Osterwalder, who has been editor of the Swiss daily, the “St.Galler Tagblatt”, for two decades. The prize is awarded to those who succeed in transmitting “the Gospel hope to a wider public” through the means of communication”. “Thanks to his deep theological formation”, says a communiqué put out by the Commission, Osterwalder was “perfectly able to treat information and declarations of the Church with a critical and constructive spirit and to transmit them in a language comprehensible to the public at large”. What the jury found particularly commendable was the journalist’s capacity to translate religious information “into simple and clear language”. Osterwalder says the press release “may be considered a translator and a mediator at the service of the local and international Church”. It is curious to note that, by the regulations, candidates for the prize may be proposed not only by members of the Commission and by the Episcopal Conference, but also by the public. A jury designated by the Commission then examines the candidates and assigns the prize.
