Distinguished Alumnus, former Vice-Rector and Faculty Director, D. José Tolentino de Mendonça was awarded the Pessoa Award in its 37th edition. This prestigious award recognizes the outstanding activity of Portuguese individuals in the country's cultural and scientific sphere.
D. José Tolentino de Mendonça, currently Prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education in the Roman Curia, holds a doctorate in Biblical Theology from UCP. The Pessoa Prize jury singled him out as "one of the fundamental voices of contemporary Portuguese and European poetry".
The Rector of UCP, Isabel Capeloa Gil, expressed her "enormous pride" at the award. She defined the winner as "a poet of the theology of modernity" and "a voice that finds the ultimate meaning of existence in the beauty of the world".
