Today Andrea Riccardi was awarded the Honoris Causa degree in Humane Letters by the Catholic University of America.

The ceremony was held during the opening session of the 125th academic year of the Ateneo, founded by the American episcopate and recognised as a Pontifical University by the Vatican.

In the reasons for the recognition, conferred to for the "universal message of peace and dialogue" spread by him as the founder of the Sant'Egidio Community, it was also pointed out "his engagement in the humanitarian field and his active participation in the life of the Church”, and "the international stature of Riccardi, estimated as a proponent of social Catholicism", with particular emphasis on the role in the search for peace in Mozambique and other countries. Also, the degree recognizes his commitment in Italy, as Minister of Cooperation "to promote a politics of the common good" and  his academic work as a historian of the Church and, in particular, as the biographer of John Paul II.