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Charles Lansdorp, Italy’s former area manager of the then Flower Council of Holland and an ambassador and advocate for the Dutch-Italian and global flower industry has been awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal. The award recognises his zealous and outstanding service to the Church and the Pope.
The award, also known as the Cross of Honour, is the highest medal the Pope can award to a layperson. The papal honour marks a 40-year career in floral promotion with the Easter Garden in St. Peter’s Square arguably being among Lansdorp’s most outstanding services to the Church.
The Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal also celebrates his relentless work supporting elderly people suffering from loneliness and isolation.
Charles Lansdorp has been awarded the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Medal, the highest medal the Pope can award to a layperson.
At the turn of the century, Lansdorp together with four other flower professionals from Italy and the Netherlands conceived Grandparents’ Day – in Italian known as the Festa dei Nonni. The day was established in Italy in 1997 and legally recognised on 31 July 2005 as a holiday. Ever since, Italy Grandparents’s Day ís on 2 October – the day on which the Catholic Church annually celebrates the guardian angels. The day was established to honour grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children’s children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people. Flowers, poems, drawings and songs are frequently used as token of appreciation and love and to bolster intergenerational solidarity.
Lansdorp is the founder of the Grandparents Day Foundation in the Netherlands. In this role he was invited to speak at the International Congress on the Pastoral Care of the Elderly, held in Rome from 2-4 October 2025. In an interview with Vatican News, he said the event had offered him global perspective. “Every country has different issues, but loneliness is universal. In some places, like the Philippines and parts of Africa, care for the elderly is built into the culture through extended families. Europe can learn from these models.”
On different occasions, Lansdorp has said he takes inspiration from the late Pope Francis who said that old age is “a precious treasure that takes shape in the journey of every man and woman’s life, whatever their origins, background, or economic or social conditions.”
In the evening of Good Friday, John Bakker, economist at the Diocese of Rotterdam, and Dutch priest, writer and historian Antoine Bodar presented Lansdorp with the papal medal.
The feature picture shows Charles and his daughter Puck.
