The CBCK Committee for Culture (President: Most Rev. Joseph Son Sam-seok, Auxiliary Bishop of Pusan) held the ceremony for the 16th Catholic Art Award at the Grand Hall of the Catholic Conference of Korea (CCK) on February 18, 2011.

Along with the Most Rev. Osvaldo Padilla, Apostolic Nuncio in Korea, and Bishop Son, many guests attended this ceremony to celebrate the event and congratulate the prize winners. Especially this year two artists were posthumously awarded the Special Award of the Catholic Art for their contribution to the advancement of the arts in Korea: the late Mr. Paul Kim Su-keun (1931-1986) and the late Mr. Michael Song Yeong-su (1930-1970). Mr. Leontio Won Seung-deok, a sculptor in his 70, was awarded the Grad Prix of the Catholic Art Award. Born in 1941, Mr. Won studied astronomy and sculpture at Seoul National University. He has been awarded many prizes for his dedicated art works manifesting his faith and gift. He is now a professor emeritus at Donga University in Busan.

In his congratulatory message, Archbishop Padilla said, "In Korea, we are blessed with many Catholic lay men and women in every field of cultural endeavor and the Church highly esteems their vocation and mission." He also mentioned on the concept of the beauty as a way to divine encounter as well as a profession, quoting the words of H.H. Benedict XVI and St. Augustine. In conclusion, he said, "Let your great mission as men and women of culture, by which you are to bear witness before the world to the beauty of the Eternal Word made flesh, be fruitful."

In his greeting remarks, Bishop Son said, "Art works inspired by the Christianity are the spiritual treasure shedding the splendor of the beauty in the midst of both the faithful and the non-believers, as a unique and unparalleled part of cultural and artistic patrimony of the humanity." He also said, "I would like to invite those men and women in the field of artistic endeavors for the via pulchritudinis, the way of beauty, and for the way of evangelization in dialogue to manifest the divine glory as well as to foster the true experience of faith, demonstrating their creative talents, given by God's special blessing, in the ecclesiastical community." In conclusion he expressed his hope that the men and women in the artistic circles might share us with the joy of the works harmonizing the faith and the arts, as much as 'God saw how good they were'."