Jesuit Brian Daley to receive Ratzinger Prize.

Though Vatican watcher Sandro Magister first reported the news in July, today was the date of the official announcement that the second annual Ratzinger Prize in Theology will be awarded to the French historian of philosophy Rémi Brague and to Father Brian E. Daley, S.J., an American patrologist who teaches at the University of Notre Dame. Here is more from today's Vatican press release:

At midday today in the Holy See Press Office, a press conference was held to present the "Ratzinger Prize", which was established by the "Vatican Foundation: Joseph Ratzinger - Benedict XVI" and is due to be conferred on 20 October.

At the press conference Cardinal Camillo Ruini, president of the Foundation's academic committee, announced the names of the prize winners: the French historian Rémi Brague and the American scholar of patrology and theology Fr. Brian Edward Daley S.J.

From 1990 to 2010 Rémi Brague was professor at La Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He currently holds the Romano Guardini Chair at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany, while continuing to work as visiting professor at a number of American, Spanish and Italian universities. He is a member of the Institut de France - Academie des sciences morales et politiques, and holds the Grand Prix de Philosophie de l'Academie Francaise. His many works include: Europe, la voie romaine, La sagesse du monde. Histoire de l'experience humaine de l'univers, Du Dieu des chrétiens et d’un ou deux autres and Les Ancres dans le Ciel.

Cardinal Ruini 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."

From 1978 to 1996 Fr. Brian Edward Daley taught theology and the history of theology at the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Currently he is a professor at the University of Notre Dame. He is active in the field of ecumenism, particularly as regards relations between Catholics and Orthodox, and is the Catholic secretary of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Theological Consultation. Among other works, he is author of The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology. He has also edited an anthology of texts of Jesuit spirituality entitled Companions in the Mission of Jesus, and contributed to the Handbuch der Dogmengeschichte.

Fr. Daley, said Cardinal Ruini, "is 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."

In addition to his many scholarly accomplishments, Brian Daley can also claim a share of responsibility for my Jesuit vocation: he was my spiritual director when I was a candidate for the Society of Jesus, and I remain deeply grateful for his deft guidance and insight as well as his friendship over the past decade. I am happy to see Brian's academic work in service of the Church publicly recognized wih the receipt of the Ratzinger Prize, and I hope that readers of this blog will join me in congratulating him on this well-deserved honor. AMDG.