Representatives from the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture traveled to Rome to celebrate the 2024 Ratzinger Prize and this year's winner, Cyril O’Regan, the Catherine F. Huisking Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. The ceremony was held at the Sala Regia at the Vatican on November 22, 2024, and was live streamed to a worldwide audience via Vatican News.

Thanks in part to an international partnership undertaken by the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, the Vatican Foundation Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI presented O'Regan the 2024 Ratzinger Prize in Theology, which is awarded annually to "scholars who have distinguished themselves with particular merit in the activity of publication and/or scientific research."

In his opening remarks (in Italian) at the ceremony, Rev. Federico Lombardi, S.J., president of the foundation and director of the Vatican Press Office under Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, acknowledged the interational partnership begun with the de Nicola Center that led to O’Regan's selection for the award. “In recent years, the Foundation’s relationships and conferences have been directed several times toward the American English-speaking sphere,” including “in recent months with a fine International Symposium at the de Nicola Center of the University of Notre Dame, thanks to which we met Prof. Cyril O’Regan.”

In his award speech, O’Regan reflected on "whether gratitude might be considered the fundamental disposition of the theologian." He continued, "If my sense of being a theologian has continually recalled me to this disposition over my 40 years of teaching and scholarship,” he said, “Augustine and Ratzinger, with a little help from de Lubac and Balthasar, have reminded me of this somewhat elusive goal.” He concluded, “Whatever intellectual excellencies I might be deemed to possess, they are inscribed in the ‘thank you’ that has brought me here to Rome and has given me this day to express gratitude by reminding me of just how far I am away from its perfect expression.”

O’Regan also acknowledged the presence at the ceremony of Jennifer Newsome Martin, director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture, and her husband Jay Martin, both of whose dissertations he directed during their studies at Notre Dame. Also representing the de Nicola Center were Margaret McManaway, senior associate director, and Justin Petrisek, research and publications program manager.

Earlier that morning, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, longtime secretary to Pope Benedict, celebrated a memorial Mass attended by the prize recipients and friends in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica, at the altar nearest the tomb of Pope Benedict XVI. O’Regan and his fellow honoree Etsuro Sotoo then met with Pope Francis in a private audience before attending the public ceremony.