Vatican City, January 27, 2026 – The Statute of the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation provides for the expiration of the terms of office of all institutional bodies every five years.

Since the previous five-year term ended in 2025, the Secretariat of State, to which the Foundation reports, has provided for their renewal and appropriate changes.

The Foundation's governing bodies are therefore composed as follows:

Board of Directors (appointed by the Secretary of State):

President: Rev. Prof. Roberto Regoli

Members: H.E. Msgr. Georg Gänswein; Rev. Prof. Achim Buckenmaier; Attorney Francesca Bazoli; Dr. Alberto Gasbarri.

Scientific Committee (appointed by the Holy Father):

Cardinal Kurt Koch; Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime; H.E. Msgr. Salvatore Fisichella; H.E. Archbishop Rudolf Voderholzer; His Excellency Archbishop Bruno Forte.

Board of Auditors:

President: Dr. Aurelio Ingrassia (appointed by the Secretariat for the Economy)

Members: Dr. Andrea Filippi; Dr. Giuseppe Mascarucci (appointed by the Secretariat of State)

The following members of the Scientific Committee, Cardinal L. Ladaria and Cardinal G. Ravasi, completed their terms and were thanked for their valuable service; the President of the Board of Directors, Father F. Lombardi; and the members of the Board of Directors, Professors Don G. Costa and Dr. R. Poletti; and the President of the Board of Auditors, Dr. A. Roppo.

Statement from the new President, Rev. Prof. Roberto Regoli

"The Holy Father Leo XIV and Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin have reappointed the new presidents of the Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation. I extend my thanks to the Pope and the Secretary of State for their attentive benevolence toward the institution. I personally thank them for the trust they have placed in me, which I intend to reciprocate in the best possible way.

Special thanks to Cardinals Ladaria and Ravasi, who in recent years, with their intelligence and insight, have made a valuable contribution to the pursuit of the Foundation's goals. I extend my gratitude for their dedication to Don Costa, Dr. Poletti, and Dr. Roppo. A heartfelt and particularly significant thank you goes to Father Lombardi, the Foundation's public and serene face, who over the past 10 years has guided the path of institutional initiatives with prudence and confidence. We know he can remain a point of reference for all of us. We hope he will reap in abundance what he has sown.

Looking ahead, my thoughts of gratitude also go to To those who have been reappointed to their roles in the Foundation (Cardinal Koch, Archbishops Gänswein and Fisichella, Bishop Voderholzer, Professor Buckenmaier, Drs. Filippi and Mascarucci) and to those who begin this new service with me (Cardinal Artime, Archbishop Forte, Attorney Dr. Bazoli, Drs. Gasbarri and Ingrassia). We have an exciting five-year period ahead of us. Among our primary commitments will be the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Joseph Ratzinger (1927-2027), which we have been preparing for for half a year with the planning of conferences, publications, exhibitions, and concerts that will involve many countries on every continent. The legacy of Ratzinger, theologian and pope, is very much alive, even pastorally, as it is the source and confirmation of many personal journeys of conversion around the world. The vivacity of his thought not only has something to say, but can make a significant contribution. to the theological and cultural debates of our time. My personal commitment is that this voice may continue to resonate, including through the Foundation. I am thinking not only of university classrooms, but also and above all of young people, whom we must help rediscover the beauty of faith, first and foremost, in Christ and in the Church.

Rev. Prof. Roberto Regoli's CV

Vatican City, December 13, 2025 – "It seems particularly fitting to award the Ratzinger Prize to someone who has preserved what Benedict XVI has always considered the heart of art: the ability to resonate, through beauty, a spark of God's presence." With these words, Pope Leo XIV greeted the presentation of the Ratzinger Prize to Maestro Riccardo Muti, which took place yesterday evening, December 12, in the Paul VI Hall in Vatican City, following the Christmas Concert in honor of and in the presence of the Holy Father.

Maestro Muti conducted the performance of the Mass for the Coronation of Charles X, composed by Luigi Cherubini in 1825, by the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, which he founded, accompanied by the "Guido Chigi Saracini" Choir of the Siena Cathedral.

"I extend my greeting to Maestro Riccardo Muti, who is being awarded the Ratzinger Prize today, a sign of appreciation for a life entirely devoted to music, a place of discipline and revelation," Pope Leo stated, noting that "Pope Benedict XVI loved to recall that 'true beauty wounds, opens the heart, expands it,' and in music he sought the voice of God in the universe." "In this journey of seeking beauty, dear Maestro," Pope Leo continued, "you had the opportunity to meet Cardinal Ratzinger several times, beginning when he attended concerts in Salzburg, Munich, and then Rome. In subsequent years, Pope Benedict attended your performances in the Paul VI Hall, where he awarded you the Grand Cross of St. Gregory the Great. The Prize you receive today is the continuation of that relationship, of a dialogue open to mystery and oriented toward the common good, toward harmony."

The Pontiff then recalled his predecessor, Pope Francis, "who loved music and listened to it with spiritual delight. Music, he said, “gives those who cultivate it a wise and calm outlook, with which divisions and antagonisms can more easily be overcome, to be – just like the instruments of an orchestra or the voices of a choir – in harmony, to watch for discord and correct dissonances, which are also useful for the dynamics of compositions, as long as they are integrated into a wise harmonic fabric.”

The Concert, promoted by the Gravissimum Educationis Foundation of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, with the support of the Galileo Foundation, "is an opportunity to raise awareness and demonstrate commitment to education: millions of boys and girls around the world are excluded from any form of schooling," the Pope concluded.

"This Prize," explained Father Federico Lombardi, president of the Ratzinger Foundation, "was established in recognition of outstanding cultural achievements in the fields of thought and art, the fruit of tireless commitment to and promotion of fundamental spiritual values." "There is no doubt that the life and work of Maestro Riccardo Muti are eminent and universally recognized testimony to this," Father Lombardi continued. "The depth of his interpretation of sacred and religiously inspired music continues to nourish and elevate the relationship between the art of music, faith, and the Church. The mutual esteem and harmony between Maestro Muti and Pope Benedict XVI, also expressed in their personal meetings, makes it entirely appropriate, and in a certain sense dutiful, to award the Maestro the recognition that bears the name of the Pope, theologian and musician.

With the 2025 edition, a total of 31 individuals have been awarded the Ratzinger Prize.

These are primarily eminent figures in the fields of dogmatic or fundamental theology, Sacred Scripture, Patrology, Philosophy, Law, Sociology, or in artistic activity, music, architecture, and sculpture.

Confirming the Prize's global cultural horizon, the recipients come from 18 different countries across five continents: Germany (7), France (4), Spain (3), Italy (3), Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Estonia, Japan, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Lebanon, Poland, the United States, South Africa, and Switzerland.

The awardees are not only Catholic, but also members of other Christian denominations – one Anglican, one Lutheran, two Orthodox – and one is Jewish.

The Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation rejoices at the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as Supreme Pontiff and wishes His Holiness Leo XIV a fruitful ministry in the service of the universal Church and the people of God.