Three winners of first Ratzinger Prize

(June 14, 2011) An Italian, a Spaniard and a German are the first three winners of the Ratzinger Prize, named after Pope Benedict XVI. The prize was established last year to promote theological studies on the writings of the Pope and reward promising scholars. The Ratzinger Prize is a project of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, which was funded by Pope Benedict with the royalties he has received from his books. The names of the winners were announced at a press conference in the Vatican on Tuesday. They are: Manlio Simonetti, an 85 year old Italian expert on the Church Fathers, who is a retired professor from Rome’s "La Sapienza" University, as well as a noted lecturer at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum; Fr. Olegario González de Cardedal, a professor of Dogmatic Theology at the Pontifical University of Salamanca, Spain; and Maximilian Heim, a Cistercian priest who teaches dogmatic and fundamental theology (ecclesiology) at the University of Heiligenkreuz, Gernamy, whose focus has been on the theology of Joseph Ratzinger. The prizes will be given out by Pope Benedict on June 30th.