The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, in partnership with the Vatican’s Foundation Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the Benedict XVI Institute, hosted the second part of an international conference at the University of Notre Dame April 7–9, 2024, reflecting on the intellectual legacy of Pope Benedict XVI.
The conference, one of the first to focus on the late pontiff's legacy following his passing in December 2022, included contributions from both emeritus and emerging scholars from around the world who discussed six of the most influential addresses delivered by the Holy Father during the course of his papacy.
“Pope Benedict’s intellectual legacy—specifically his call for creative dialogue with secular thinkers and institutions about the important questions of the modern age—is one that will continue to be examined for years to come,” said Rev. John Paul Kimes, a co-organizer of the conference, assistant professor of the practice at Notre Dame Law School, and Raymond of Peñafort Fellow in Canon Law at the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture. “The conference fostered meaningful dialogue about faith and democracy, science, and human rights—fundamental conversations into which Pope Benedict invited the world, and which as yet remain incomplete.”
The conference featured contributions from two winners of the Ratzinger Prize, Rémi Brague (Sorbonne, Paris; Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich) and Tracey Rowland (University of Notre Dame, Australia). Additional presenters included Chantal Delsol (University of Marne-la-Valée), Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Rome), and Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School).
“The University of Notre Dame is the natural host for such dialogue between thinkers of different traditions and perspectives from all over the world,” said Father Kimes. “The de Nicola Center, in its mission to promote the Catholic moral and intellectual tradition at the highest level through research and scholarly engagement across the disciplines, convened thought leaders from Europe, Australia, North and South America, and Africa to engage these questions. The conference birthed new research collaborations among scholars, inviting them to continue to engage one of the most creative and important voices in the Catholic Church in the past 100 years.”
In his opening keynote, Cyril O’Regan, Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, remarked that it is difficult to adequately appropriate Pope Benedict’s legacy—“to remember in a way that does justice to its eloquent and charitable firmness, the insights provided regarding the nature of faith, and especially of its understanding of the Church and its encounter with the modern world.” “With respect to the last of these,” O’Regan continued, “his words are as bracing as they are illuminating, and we continue to discern, discriminate, and sift.”
Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., who served as director of the Vatican Press Office under Pope Benedict beginning in 2006, gave an informal set of reflections on his time with the pontiff (video link). He highlighted ten insights into Benedict’s character, including his lifelong devotion to his family, his love of teaching as a professor of theology, and his service as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope St. John Paul II, a partnership that Father Lombardi described as that of “two giants, a formidable couple, really a gift for the history of the Church.”
The two-part conference began with a session hosted at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in November 2023, coinciding with the presentation of the annual Ratzinger Prize at the Vatican. The Rome session featured reflections by Mary Ann Glendon, the Learned Hand Professor of Law, emerita, at Harvard University and Permanent Senior Distinguished Research Fellow at the de Nicola Center, on the impact of Pope Benedict’s 2008 speech to the United Nations.
“Throughout his pontificate, Benedict XVI opened a dialogue with political and cultural leaders and major international institutions, speaking to these elites from the podium of State Parliaments, the United Nations and major universities,” said Rev. Jordi Pujol, associate professor of communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and co-organizer of the conference. “His texts have been publicly discussed in different ways, however they still can offer much light to current intellectual debates. With this project, we aimed to re-open these conversations and engage a wide set of international scholars from different generations.”
Underscoring the multigenerational influence of Pope Benedict’s legacy, three student scholars—undergraduate and graduate Sorin Fellows of the de Nicola Center—also presented papers at the conference. Students were invited to submit an essay on the legacy of Pope Benedict to a contest; the winning essays, chosen by a selection committee among the conference organizers, garnered their student authors a cash prize and the opportunity to present at the conference.
“It was a huge honor to present my paper, entitled ‘Joseph Ratzinger’s New Iconography of Christ’s Descent into Hell,’ and to meet Father Lombardi, who knew Pope Benedict well and had such beautiful stories to share,” said Maura Shea, a doctoral student in theology at Notre Dame. “I was struck anew by the sheer scope of topics regarding faith, modernity, history, technology, and culture with which Ratzinger engaged so deeply. It was clear how scholars from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives showed admiration and respect for, if not always full agreement with, Ratzinger’s thought. The conference was not merely hagiographic—it insisted, as I think Ratzinger himself would have appreciated, on continuing the conversations he began with rigor.”
Presentations delivered at the conference will be published in a forthcoming volume from the University of Notre Dame Press.