The awards ceremony for the first edition of the Expanded Reason Awards was in the best possible location: the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and the rector of Francisco de Vitoria University recalled that the inspiration of these prizes was Benedict XVI's teaching. He wanted to overcome the current paradigm of a hyper-specialized university that forgets the “whole” and focuses on the “part.”
CARD. GIANFRANCO RAVASI
President, Pontifical Council for Culture
'These two extremes have created closed areas of specialization. They are horizons closed in on themselves; self-sufficient.'
DANIEL SADA
Rector, Francisco de Vitoria University
'The pope emeritus' idea has ignited a call to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge and to return an adequate use of reason to the world of thought and culture. That is to widen the horizons of reason and to think from an open point of view.'
When receiving the prizes the emotion overflowed in some of the winners, like Darcia Narvaez. Her project describes the neurobiological basis for the development of moral feelings and reasoning.
DARCIA NARVÁEZ
University of Notre Dame
“Pope Benedict said that the book of nature is one and indivisible. Humans are part of nature and we are also one and indivisible: faith and reason go together in a full human being.'
The ceremony was attended by various ambassadors and personalities from the Vatican, and was presented by the former Vatican spokesperson and the president of the Jospeh Ratzinger Foundation, Federico Lombardi.
The foundation and Francisco de Vitoria University have promoted the first edition of the Expanded Reason Awards. The celebration culminated with this dinner in the heart of the Vatican gardens. The second edition has already been announced, and will open on October 1, 2017.
