Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation Prizes awarded

(June 30, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday awarded the first Ratzinger Prize to three eminent theological scholars in Rome. The Ratzinger Prize is a product of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, which is funded by Pope Benedict with the royalties he receives from his books. The Foundation promotes studies in three areas– Sacred Scripture, the Fathers of the Church and Fundamental Theology, which focuses on reason and the culture of our time. The three winners of the Ratzinger Prize are Manlio Simonetti, the 85-year-old expert on the Church Fathers; Olegario Gonzàlez de Cardedal, the
77-year-old Professor of Dogmatic Theology and 50-year-old Cistercian Professor of Theology, Maximilian Heim.
In his discourse Pope Benedict said that Christianity aims to raise fundamental questions on life and the link between the Word of God, truth and faith. In his search, man discovers that God is not an object of human experimentation. He is the subject and is manifested in the relationship between persons. “The right faith in an individual directs his reason to open itself to the divine, so that guided by love for the truth, he can know God more intimately,” said the Pope. He added that the ultimate goal of theology is to search for the truth. However, it is precisely this challenge that pushes a human being to open his own reason and search for the truth, said Pope Benedict. The Ratzinger Prize includes €50 thousand each