The Ratzinger Prize is getting a whole currency these days: it is the second year that’s been bestowed on worthy scholars. What’s novel of me is that it’s not everyday that you get a prize for serious work from the man the prize is named after, and that he’s the Supreme Pontiff! The 2012 Ratzinger Prize was given to a French philosopher and American theologian on Saturday, October 20, 2012. Pope Benedict said that “Father Daley and Professor Brague are exemplary for the transmission of knowledge that unites science and wisdom, scientific rigor and passion for man, so that man might discover the [true] ‘art of living.'” Chris Altieri has the Vatican Radio report here.
Jesuit Father Brian Daley, professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, following the ceremony where he received the Ratzinger Prize in Theology, for his work in the field of patristics, said, “I am always inspired when I read, say St. Justin from the 2nd century or other early fathers…when they speak of non-Christians, of pagans at that time, they say that anybody who sincerely seeks to live by what is right, and who understands the Logos, the rational structure, at the basis of the world and our experience, has contact with Christ.”
Photos of the event.
Interviewing Father Daley for Vatican Radio Father Bernd Hagenkord work may be listened to here.
Rome Reports has a video clip here.
Photo credit: Alan Holdren of CNA