The bishop of El Obeid, in the Sudan, is among the candidates proposed to the Nobel Peace Prize 2012.
Bishop Macram Max Gassis was proposed by Portuguese MP Jose Ribeiro e Castro to the Nobel Committee in recognition of his courage in the struggle against the discrimination of Christians in the Sudan.
Mr Castro said Bishop Gassis is a witness of the great dramas, the great sufferings of his Christian people and he himself experienced persecution.
He added that the Sudanese bishop deserves the award due to his long stand of consistency, tenacity and courage during many years in favour of the persecuted Christians in the Sudan.
Bishop Gassis, 73, was born in Khartoum and is a Comboni Missionary.
He was appointed apostolic administrator of El Obeid diocese in 1983 and bishop in 1988.
Two years later he went into exile because Khartoum brought criminal charges against him after the bishop testified before the U.S. Congress about the atrocities committed by the Sudanese government against its own people.
In the last years, bishop Gassis concentrated his pastoral and social work in some parishes of Nuba Mountains, Sudan, and Warrap State, South Sudan.
He is the only Arab-Sudanese member of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference.