Second edition of
Ratzinger Prizes for theology
to be given out in October
by Gianluca Biccini
Translated from the 7/20/12 issue of
Pope Benedict XVI will hand out the second edition of the Ratzinger Prize for theology in the context of the upcoming Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.
Mons. Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, president of the Fondazione Vaticana Joseph Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI, which gives out the prizes, said that "On October 10, Pope Benedict XVI wishes to express very simply his thanks to those who, in the darkness of the present time, are giving their everything in order that the splendor of the truth may shine forth, in a spirit of profound communion with the Holy Father".
The Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization will take place from October 7-28 next month.
Awarding the prizes named for the Pope to scholars who distinguish themselves by their publications and scientific research on theological topics is one of the activities of the Vatican-based Foundation, which is modelled after the Munich-based Joseph Ratzinger-Benedikt XVI Stiftung (Foundation) set up by the Ratzinger Schuelerkreis in December 2007.
My addendum, from the presentation of the Fondazione Vaticana in 2011:
[Fr. Stephan Horn, the Salvatorian father who is president of both associations, said at the news conference presenting the Vatican-based foundation in November 2010 that the ultimate objective is "to make known the theological thinking and spirituality of Pope Benedict XVI so it may live on".
Mons. Scotti said that the Foundation would be financed mainly by 50 percent of the Pope's royalties - which he assigned to the Vatican publishing house in a 2005 agreement (the other 50 percent will go to selected charities).]
Last year, on June 30, the Holy Father handed out the first three Ratzinger Prizes for theology to Patristics scholar Manlio Simonetti, Spanish theologian Olegario González de Cardedal and German theologian Fr. Maximilian Heim.
The choices are made by a scientific committee headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, with Cardinals Tarcisio Bertone and Angelo Amato, and Archbishops Luis Ladaria Ferrer, secretary of the CDF, and Jean-Louis Brugues, formerly secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education and recently named Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church.
With the first Ratzinger Prizes last year, they called attention to the work of Simonetti, the 86-year-old lay Italian who is considered one of the world's foremost authorities on early Christian history; Spanish priest Fr. Gonzales Cardedal, now 78, who founded the Karl Rahner-Hans Urs von Balthasar School of Theology in Spain in 1998; and the Cistercian Maximilian Heim, 51, abbot of Heiligenkreuz monastery outside Vienna.
Cardinal Ruini said when the first awardees were announced in June last year that the Prizes are open even to non-Catholics or to theological scholars at the start of their career but who already 'demonstrate rigor and passion in their work'.
For this reason, at the presentation of the first awardees, it was Abbot Heim - who has been very active in the new generation of Joseph Ratzinger'ss Schuelerkreis - who gave the
lectio magistralis on that occasion.
He cited the Pope's well-known personal dedication to scientific research on 'the real Jesus', from which alone, he believes, 'a Christology from below' is possible.
This year, Mons. Scotti said, the prizes will go to two personalities who "with their intense and generous life of study, research and ample publication, have grasped and given voice to a theology capable of expressing - (and he cites from the Holy Father's most recent Easter homily) - that 'light makes life possible. It makes encounter possible. It makes knowledge possible - which is access to reality, to truth. And by making knowledge possible, it makes freedom and progress possible'".
The prize winners will be announced at a news conference soon.
Because in recent years, the publication of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's two volumes of JESUS OF NAZARETH has raised remarkable interest not just among ordinary readers, but even in scientific and university circles, the Vatican foundation is organizing, in cooperation with all the pontifical universities of Rome, a symposium on "The Gospels, historical research and Christology" planned for the autumn of 2012.
The event which will be held at the Lateran University, from October 24-26, is the third in such a series sponsored by the Foundation.
The first one, in which 32 universities took part, was held in Sydgoszcz, Poland, in conjunction with the October 2011 pilgrimage to Assisi organized by Benedict XVI, on the theme of the event itself: "Pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace".
The second convention will be held this year in Rio de Janeiro from November 8-9this November. The participating universities will discuss the anthropological question "What makes man human?" in the context of World Youth Day to be held in Rio in July 2013.
For those who may have missed this brief video by the Fondazione Ratzinger-Benedetto XVI assembled last year for the 60th anniversary of the Holy Father's priesthood, it's worth watching:
http://www.fondazioneratzinger.va/player_e_video/player/60anni_sacerdozio_benedettoxvi/flash_it.html