Haute 100: George Clooney, Richard Gere and Salma Hayek Honored by Pope Francis

On Sunday night, Haute 100 lister George Clooney and wife, Amal, met Pope Francis at the Vatican. Clooney, his wife as well as Richard Gere and Salma Hayek all attended an event at the Roman Catholic Church to promote the work of Pope Francis’ foundation Scholas Occurrentes.

At the event, the Pope awarded Gere, Clooney and Hayek for participating as ambassadors for Scholas Occurrentes. All three received the medal of the Olive Tree for joining the organization in promoting education in the world.

Scholas Occurrentes, whose name means “schools that meet” in Spanish, connects technology with arts and sports in order to promote social integration and the culture of encounter for peace. It is available throughout 82 countries, made up of over 400,000 schools and educational networks, with headquarters in the Vatican City, Argentine, Spain, Paraguay and Mozambique. The organization’s mission is to bring communities together, with a special focus on underprivileged individuals by committing all social actors and incorporating schools and educational networks worldwide to technological, sports and artistic proposals. Scholas Occurrentes works with all kinds of schools, both public and private, and of all religious affiliations.

Since the organization’s inception on Aug. 13th, 2013, Scholas has already implemented a number of educational programs in different parts of the world. The programs are Scholas Citizen, Scholas Social, Scholas Art, Scholas Laudato, Scholas Oficios, Scholas Labs, Facts Scholas and Futval.

Featured photo via Scholas Occurrentes.