Joan Botam i Casals was born in
Les Borges Blanques,
Spain on 21 September 1926. When he finished his studies, he worked in the Registry Office and as administrator in the Les Borges Blanques town hall. In 1944 he entered as a novice in the
Capuchin Order in
Arenys de Mar. In 1955 he got his PhD in
Theology in the
Pontifical University of Salamanca and in the
Pontifical Gregorian University of
Rome, and in 1957 he was appointed vice-director (and later he became director) of the College of Philosophy and Theology of the Capuchin Friars. In 1952 he became a priest. Botam was interested in the Catalan culture, and his work
Arnau de Vilanova, moralista (1956) received the
Jaume Serra i Húnter prize, which is given by the
Institute of Catalan Studies. He was also interested in
hiking. In 1963 he was appointed vicar provincial of the Capuchin Friars of Catalonia, and he was at the same time chaplain of the ecumenical institution
Pax Christi. From this position, he was engaged in several initiatives that were linked to
pacifism and
ecumenism. So he took part in the foundation of the Víctor Seix Institute of Polemology, he was part of the jury of the John XXIII Memorial and he cooperated actively in the anti-Francoist cultural resistance. He had an essential role in the
Caputxinada of 1966. After that the Barcelona civil governor
Antonio Ibáñez Freire tried to expel him from Spain, but the religious authorities and the
Vatican avoided that. In 1984 he founded the
Ecumenical Centre of Catalonia in order to foster the dialogue among Orthodoxes, Anglicans, Catholics and Protestants. Later he founded also the Intercultural Platform Barcelona 1992 in order to foster the dialogue among religions during the
1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona so that all sportsmen from all religions had a common place to pray. This way the Abraham Centre from Poblenou was created. At the same time, he was appointed president of the Union of Members of Religious Orders of Catalonia (URC) and he also fostered the First Congress of Religious Life of Catalonia. In 1997 he was president of the commission that made the draft of the Interreligious Centre / Municipal Service for Attention to Religious People and Religious Orders of Barcelona. In 2000 he represented Barcelona, together with Enric Capó, in the Millennium Summit of spiritual and religious leaders in the United Nations. In 2010 he received the Creu de Sant Jordi (Saint George cross), a high distinction given by the
regional Catalan government, for his contribution to the dialogue among religions and for fostering the peace, the coexistence and the understanding among cultures. He also received the prize in coexistence and interreligious dialogue of the
Grup de Treball Estable de Religions (GTER). Botam died on 30 November 2023, at the age of 97. == References ==