Ratzinger Prize...

Heart-felt congratulations to Fr. Brian Daley, SJ for receiving the 2012 Ratzinger Prize.  He is a man of sincerity and dedication and I am quite grateful to have had him as professor, spiritual director [don't blame him], and now a priest to minister alongside.

The Holy Father addressed these words at the awarding.

"I warmly congratulate Prof. Daley and Prof. Brague, who by their personalities illustrate this initiative in its second edition. And here I mean “personality” in the full sense: the character of the research and the whole scientific endeavor; the precious service of teaching, which both have undertaken for many years; but also their being, naturally in in different ways – one a Jesuit, the other a married layman – working in the Church, active in offering their qualified contribution to the Church’s presence in today’s world.

In this regard I noted something that led to some reflection, and that is that this year’s two recipients are competent and engaged in two matters that are decisive for the Church of our times: I am referring to ecumenism and the encounter with other religions. Father Daley, studying the Fathers of the Church in depth, has placed himself in the best school for knowing and loving the Church one and undivided but in the richness of her different traditions; thus he carries out a service of responsibility in relations with the Orthodox Churches. And Prof. Brague is a great scholar of the philosophy of religions, particularly the medieval Jewish and Islamic."