Pope Francis will personally award the 2016 Ratzinger Prize to Inos Biffi and Ioannis Kourempeles, on Nov. 26, at 11 a.m. in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace. The recognition, assigned by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, awards those scholars who have distinguished themselves particularly in scientific research activity in the realm of theology.
The names of the winners were presented to Pope Francis by the Foundation’s Scientific Committee, made up of Cardinals Angelo Amato, who is its President, Kurt Koch, Gianfranco Ravasi and Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria.
Native of Lomagna, Lecco, where he was born in 1943, Monsignor Biffi is ordinary emeritus of Systematic Theology and of the History of Medieval Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Lugano. In addition, he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, president of the Institute for the History of Medieval Theology of Milan and director of the Institute of History of Theology at the Faculty of Theology of Lugano.
Ioannis Kourempeles, born in Athens in 1965, studied theology at the theological faculties of Salonika, Erlangen and Heidelberg. He teaches History of Dogmas and Dogmatic and Symbolic Theology at the Faculty of Theology of the “Aristotle” University of Salonika. He is the first Orthodox to be awarded the Ratzinger Prize.
The awarding of the prize will take place at the end of the International Symposium on “Eschatology: Analysis and Perspectives,” which will be held in Rome from Nov. 24-26 at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
