Ratzinger Prize 2012 to US Jesuit and French historian philosopher

(September 28, 2012) A United States Jesuit theologian and a French historian and philosopher have been declared the winners of the Ratzinger Prize for 2012. The Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) Vatican Foundation, that handles the annual prize, made the announcement on Friday at a press conference in the Vatican. The winners are French historian Remi Brague and the American scholar of patrology and theology Jesuit Fr. Brian Edward Daley. Among the several accomplishments of the French layman, a father of four children, is professorship at the prestigious Sorbonne University of Paris, from 1990 to 2010. Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Foundation's academic committee described Professor Brague as "a true philosopher and, at the same time, a great historian of cultural thought who unites a profound and unequivocal Christian and Catholic faith to his speculative ability and historical vision". Fr. Daley, who formerly taught theology and the history of theology at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is currently professor at the University of Notre Dame. Cardinal Ruini described the Jesuit priest as “a great historian of patristic theology, but also a man entirely committed to the life and mission of the Church, an exemplary model of the fusion of academic rigour with passion for the Gospel". The Ratzinger Prize, dubbed the “Nobel for theology,” will be conferred by Pope Benedict in the Vatican on Oct. 20, in the course of Oct. 7-28 Synod of Bishops on the theme, ““The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith”.
Pope Benedict XVI ordered the creation of the "Vatican Foundation: Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI" on 1 March 2010, in order to respond to a desire expressed by many scholars over the course of the years. One of the tasks of the academic committee is to establish criteria of excellence for the creation and conferral of prizes to scholars who have distinguished themselves in academic publications and/or research. Msgr. Giuseppe Scotti, president of the Foundation explained that the aim of the foundation was to “place the issue of God at the core of philosophical reflection.” “The conferral of the Ratzinger Prize, which seeks to place the question of God before the eyes of the public, is just one of the Foundation's three regular activities,” he explained. “The other two, perhaps less well know but equally important, ... are the granting of bursaries to doctorate students of theology, and organising high-level academic conferences,” Msgr. Scotti added.