Japanese sculptor, Notre Dame’s O’Regan to receive prestigious Ratzinger Prize

Almudena Martínez-Bordiú   By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú for CNA

September 20, 2024 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 1 Print

 

Etsurō Sotoo is an enthusiastic advocate of the cause of canonization of Gaudí, known as “God’s architect.” / Credit: Public Domain CC-BY-SA-4.0 Wikimedia Commons

Madrid, Spain, Sep 20, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).

For the first time, a sculptor and native of Japan will be awarded the Ratzinger Prize.

His name is Etsurō Sotoo, born in 1953 in Fukuoka, Japan, and a graduate of Kyoto University.

A 1978 visit to Spain changed the course of his life forever.

Arriving in the city of Barcelona, he was impressed by the construction of the Sagrada Familia basilica and asked to work there as a sculptor.

Following instructions left by Antoni Gaudí, the renowned Spanish architect of the monument, still under construction, Sotoo began his work on the basilica’s Nativity façade.

During his stay in Barcelona, ​​Etsurō Sotoo converted to Catholicism and received the sacrament of baptism.

Sotoo is an enthusiastic advocate of the cause of canonization of Gaudí, known as “God’s architect.”

Sotoo’s handiwork is found in various parts of the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia and in other places in Spain as well as in Japan and Italy, in the Cathedral of Florence.

Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the Sagrada Familia basilica during a trip to Barcelona in 2010, expressing his great appreciation for the figure and art of Antoni Gaudí.

Cyril O’Regan

Irish theologian Cyril O’Regan is also a winner of the 2024 Ratzinger Prize.

Since 1999, he has been a professor of systematic theology in the Department of Theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

He studied philosophy in Ireland and earned a doctorate, also earning another doctorate in theology at Yale University in Connecticut.

Cyril O'Regan is Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Credit: McGrath Institute for Church Life lecture series/Screenshot
Cyril O’Regan is Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Credit: McGrath Institute for Church Life lecture series/Screenshot

O’Regan is the author of numerous articles and several books, including “The Heterodox Hegel” (1994), “Gnostic Return in Modernity” (2001), “Theology and the Spaces of Apocalyptic” (2009), “Anatomy of Misremembering,” and “Newman and Ratzinger” (publication in progress).

His lectures are highly appreciated by his students, and he has dedicated several relevant articles to the figure and teachings of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI).

“I am delighted and also feel incredibly honored given the caliber of scholars and thinkers who have received it before me,” O’Regan said of the recognition.

Nov. 22 award ceremony and Mass

On Friday, Nov. 22, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See, is scheduled to present the prize to both professor O’Regan and Sotoo.

The ceremony will take place in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace. That same morning, a Mass will be celebrated in memory of Pope Benedict XVI at his tomb in the Vatican Grottoes. The two winners will be received by Pope Francis.

What is the Ratzinger Prize?

The Ratzinger Prize was started in 2011 to recognize scholars whose work demonstrates a significant contribution to theology in the spirit of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Bavarian theologian who became Pope Benedict XVI.

The awardees are chosen by Pope Francis based on the recommendations of a committee made up of five cardinals who are members of the Roman Curia.

It is currently made up of Cardinal Kurt Koch, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity; Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect emeritus of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Culture; Archbishop Salvatore Fisichica, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization; and Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer Regensburg, president of the Pope Benedict XVI Institute.

With the 2024 edition, the total number of Ratzinger prize winners ascends to 30. These are mainly eminent personalities in the studies of dogmatic or fundamental theology, sacred Scripture, patristics, philosophy, law, sociology, or in artistic activity such as music, architecture, and now sculpture.

The winners, who hail from 18 different countries on five continents, are not only Catholics but also belong to other faith traditions, such as Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and Judaism.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Art experts solve Renaissance mystery in papal palace

July 12, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, Jul 12, 2017 / 04:58 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Two works painted by Renaissance master Raphael have been newly identified after art experts restored famous frescoes in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City.

Arnold Nesselrath, an art historian who heads technical and scientific research at the Vatican Museums, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that 16th century sources had offered clues. These sources said that Raphael had indeed painted two figures in the Apostolic Palace’s Hall of Constantine as tests of his oil technique.

In Nesselrath’s words, these figures were described as being “of a much higher quality than the ones around them.”

The exact identity of these figures was forgotten until the 21st century.

In an art restoration process that began in 2015, experts cleaned the works and removed the effects of centuries of previous restoration work.

They discovered that Raphael himself had painted two figures of women who serve as allegories for the virtues of Friendship and Justice. Only the art restoration made apparent Raphael’s oil technique.

The Hall of Constantine was intended to serve as a reception room in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City. It depicts the life of the Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to seek baptism. The four frescoes depict The Vision of the Cross, the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, the Baptism of Constantine, and the Donation of Constantine.

The Vision of the Cross fresco depicts a key event said to have been a step towards Constantine’s conversion to Christianity during his battles to become emperor. The fresco depicts the emperor in a military camp looking towards giant cross in the sky that is surrounded by Greek words saying, “In this sign, conquer.”

At one side of this fresco, a woman labeled as Friendship wears a blue gown. She is seated to the left of St. Clement I, a first century Pope, the art blog Hyperallergic reports.

Another figure believed to be painted by Raphael is on the far right side of the fresco depicting Constantine’s battle at the Milvian bridge with his brother-in-law Maxentius, a rival imperial claimant. This woman’s image is labeled as Justice and bears a set of scales, at which she is staring.

Raphael, working under a commission from Julius II, had sketched plans for the Hall of Constantine before his death in 1520. The frescos’ completion was left to his students.

“They continued in the traditional method and have left only these two figures, autographs of the master,” Nesselrath told La Stampa.

Three other rooms in the Apostolic Palace feature Raphael’s work, including his famous depiction of the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle in his work “School of Athens.” Known as the “Raphael Rooms,” the frescoes can be seen by visitors to the Vatican Museums.

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