FIFTH EDITION OF THE RATZINGER PRIZE

RATZINGER PRIZE 2015

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The celebration of the fifth edition of the Ratzinger Prize was held on 21st November 2015. The prize was awarded to Mario de França Miranda, Brazilian Jesuit priest, full professor of Theology at the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro and to Nabil el-Khoury, Lebanese professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the l’Université Libanaise of Beirut and the University of Tubingen. He also translated the Opera Omnia of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI in Arabic.

The profiles of the scholars were outlined by the archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and of the Scientific Committee of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, because the new president of the Scientific Committee appointed by the Pope, cardinal Angelo Amato – prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints – was in Spain for a beatification ceremony.

During his greeting, Msgr. Giuseppe A. Scotti, President of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, explained that through the Ratzinger Prize “the Pope and the Church want to thank two men who distinguished themselves as scholars, professors and researchers”.

The award-winners are from Brazil and Lebanon, “countries that are living the same situation Pope Francis described in the Evangelii Gaudium; in fact the Pope said that ‘new cultures are constantly being born in these vast new expanses where Christians are no longer the customary interpreters or generators of meaning. Instead, from these cultures they take new languages, symbols, messages and paradigms which propose new approaches to life, often in contrast with the Gospel of Jesus’. These are the places in which dramatic events take place today and in which ‘a completely new culture has come to life and continues to grow in the cities’ ”.

“With their writings and their long academic lives, they demonstrated that ‘what is called for is an evangelization capable of shedding light on these new ways of relating to God, to others and to the world around us, and inspiring essential values. It must reach the places where new narratives and paradigms are being formed, bringing the word of Jesus to the inmost soul of our cities’. Cities are now multicultural and Pope Francis added that ‘in some places a spiritual desertification has evidently come about, as the result of attempts by some societies to build without God or to eliminate their Christian roots’ ”. “The Pope wanted to give the prize to people who live and work in the ‘suburbs of the world’ where it is evident that ‘the Christian world is becoming sterile, and it is depleting itself”, as the president of the Vatican Foundation added.

“In the places in which there is a spiritual desertification, these two scholars will give hope to the women and men living in love for their faith and in respect for the human reason”.

Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and delegate of Pope Francis, awarded the prize.

“In the last years – said the cardinal – The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation awarded theologians from the west side of the world. Now this important award is given to two important scholars from Lebanon and Brazil”.

“Even if the East had been the birthplace of Christianity, the missionary movements, during the age of the discoveries, led to the spreading of the doctrine of the faith and the traditions of the western catholic culture on a worldwide scale – said cardinal Müller – That is the reason of the spreading of the Catholic Church.

The Churches of Africa, Latin America, and the Asiatic East are the synthesis of the faith and its cultural explication. The catholic nature of the Church appears in the several ways of expression of the Christian faith and is both a precautionary present and dynamic process to give Christ – the incarnated Son of God – a ‘body’, that is the Church living in the world”.

“Dear Professors Nabil el-Khoury and Mario De França Miranda – the cardinal concluded – I am happy to award you with the Ratzinger Prize, in the name of Pope Francis. You have stood out for your research and academic activities. Congratulations from all of us and from the people who are here to pay homage to you. Thank you so much!”.

The celebration of the Ratzinger Prize was held at the end of the International Symposium “Deus caritas est. Porta di Misericordia”, organized for the 10th anniversary of the publication of the first encyclical of Benedict XVI. It was attended by the cardinals Bertone, Cordes, Grech, Koch, Monteiro de Castro and Sandri, the archbishops Becciu and Farhat, Christian Schaller and Waldemar Chrostowski, who received the Prize in 2013 and 2014, the members of the Scientific Committe, of the Board of Directors and of the Board of Revisers of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

The greetings of Msgr. Giuseppe A. President of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation 

The speech of Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The profiles of the two award-winners

Mario De França Miranda SJ

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Dr. Mario De França Miranda SJ was born in Rio de Janeiro on 24th July 1936. After his secondary education, he joined the Company of Jesus in 1955. He spent his novitiate in Itaici and studied humanities and philosophy at the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Nova Friburgo from 1959 to 1962.

In 1964 he started studying theology at the Theology Faculty of the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and he took a degree in Systematic Theology in 1968, with a graduation thesis on salvation outside the Church according to Karl Rahner. His supervisor was Fr. Piet Fransen SJ. In the following years he dealt with the seminarians at the Brazilian College in Rome and he held a one-semester course on Sacraments and Creation at the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC). He was a Ph.D. student of the Pontifical Gregorian University (Rome) and he lived in Munster (Germany) for two years; he devoted himself to his graduation thesis, that he defended at the Gregorian University in 1974. It was a critical and systematic study on the Trinitarian Theology of Karl Rahner.

In 1974 he started teaching at the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC), with lessons on the Holy Trinity. From 1975 to 1977 he was dean of the Faculty. In 1978 he started holding courses of Theological Anthropology. Up to 1983 he taught in the same Theology Faculty. In 1979 he went to Belo Horizonte as a full professor of Systematic Theology at the Theology Faculty of the Company of Jesus in Brazil. He also dealt with the topic of Christian Faith in modern culture. In 1990 he became rector of the Company of Jesus (1990-1992).

In 1993 he started teaching again at the Theology Faculty of the Pontifical Catholic University (PUC) and he dealt with new topics, such as “Theology of religions”, “Enculturation of the faith”, “Christian faith and the modern society”. He was dean of the Theology Faculty from 2001 to 2003.

In the last few years he worked on ecclesiological studies for the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB).

He also held courses in several dioceses of Brazil and he contributed to the Conference of Brazilian Bishops, in the Episcopal Commission for the Doctrine and in the annual meetings. He also worked for the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), during study meetings and courses, and in the drafting of working papers for the Assemblies of Santo Domingo and Aparecida. He attended both Assemblies as an expert member of the Drafting Committee. For two times between 1992 and 2003 he was member of the Vatican International Theology Commission, whose dean was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. As a visiting professor he held a course on “enculturation of the faith” for graduated students of the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2001 and 2002. He attended the Synod of the Penitence in 1983 as an expert of the National Conference of Bishops in Brazil and the Synod of the Americas in 1997 as an expert member of the Latin American Episcopal Council.

He wrote 14 books and 105 scientific articles and he worked on the drafting of other 31 volumes. He is member of the editorial staff of the following reviews: Revista Teología (Argentina) Actualidades Teológicas (Chile), Cuestiones Teológicas (Colombia), Stromata (Argentina), Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira (Brazil), Kairós (Brazil), Revista de Cultura Teológica (Brazil ).

He was the supervisor of 31 graduation theses and 14 Ph.D. theses.

Nabil el-Khoury

Nabil el-Khoury

Dr. Nabil el-Khoury was born in Mtaile- Chouf, Lebanon, on 5th April 1941.

He studied philosophy and theology with Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, Sélim Abou, père Afif Osseiran and Abdo Khalifé SJ at St. Joseph’s University in Beirut (Lebanon), where he took a degree in Philosophy in 1965. In the same year, he started studying at the Pontifical Urbanian University with Cornelio Fabro and Antonio Piolanti and he obtained a diploma in Theology in 1967.

He then attended the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen and the University of Regensburg (Germany), where he studied philosophy, theology, political sciences, oriental studies, Christian West and linguistics from 1967 to 1973, and his professors were Joseph Ratzinger, Ernst Bloch, Walter Schulz, Josef Simon and Alexander Böhlig. He was also Ph.D. student of philosophy at the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen with Professor Walter Schultz and he published “Die Interpretation der Welt bei Ephraem dem Syrer. Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte”.

He had a post-doctoral experience with Paul Ricoeur on the topic “Problèmes d’herméneutique: l’exemple du Liban” at the Sorbonne University of Paris (France) and he worked on the publication of the book “Werke von Schelling” with Hermann Krings, Xavier Tilliette, Walter Schulz, Hans Michael Baumgartner and Wilhelm G. Jacobs at the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich (Germany).

Between 1974 and 1977 he qualified as a professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich and he has been teaching at the Lebanese University of Beirut from 1977.

He is now Professor of Philosophy and Comparative Literature at the Lebanese University of Beirut and at the University of Tubingen. He also translated the Joseph Ratzinger's Opera Omnia in Arabic and other writings of Kant, Hegel and Goethe.

He taught at the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Germany), the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz (Germany), the University of Freiburg (Germany) and the University of Salzburg (Austria).

He worked on important editorial projects, such as Beirut Contributions to Theology, Beirut Contributions to Philosophy, Masterpieces of German Literature in Arabic translation.

He wrote a lot of scientific articles and he held conferences in several European countries.

He speaks Arabic, German, French, English, Italian, Latin, Greek, Syriac and Hebrew.

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