On January 17th, the day historically dedicated to deepening Catholic-Jewish dialogue in Italy, the first John Paul II Prize for Catholic-Jewish studies will be awarded in an online ceremony. The ceremony will conclude with the remarks of Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and of the Commission for the Religious Relations with the Jews.
The John Paul II Prize for Catholic-Jewish Studies is a joint initiative of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, awarded in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The prize aims to encourage and acknowledge the Licentiate thesis or Doctoral research that tackles topics related to Catholic-Jewish dialogue and thus support students who are engaged in this academic endeavor.
This year the award recipient is Rev. Ryan Muldoon, who was a Russell Berrie Fellow in 2018-2019 (Cohort XI). A priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York (USA), he currently serves as Parochial Vicar of St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown Heights, New York and as Adjunct Professor of Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York. In 2020, Fr. Ryan earned his Licentiate in Sacred Theology (STL) from the Angelicum in Rome with the thesis “The Land of Our Fathers in Faith: The Theological Role of the Land of Israel for Contemporary Jewish-Catholic Dialogue” for which he is now awarded the John Paul II Prize.
After the greeting by Father Hyacinthe Destivelle, OP, Director of the Institute for Ecumenical Studies of the Angelicum, Father Ryan will be introduced and presented by Rabbi Jack Bemporad, Founder and Director Emeritus of the John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue, before sharing with the attendants the results of his Licentiate thesis. Cardinal Kurt Koch will then congratulate the award recipient and conclude with his final remarks.
Join us on Monday January 17th at 4:30pm (Rome time). To receive your joining link, please register here