Theology alumni wins the Centessimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation International Award

The Centessimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation of the Holy See has awarded the work of the former student of the Faculty of Theology (Comillas CIHS), Carolina Montero, entitled Vulnerabilidad. Hacia una Ética más humana.

Specifically, Montero will receive the International Economics and Society Award, in its sixth edition, thanks to her research published in which she presents her doctoral thesis carried out at Comillas. The award ceremony will take place next Tuesday, 27 February, in Rome, and will be presided over by the Vatican Secretary of State, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and will be attended by the president of the jury that awarded Montero, His Eminence Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

For Montero, the prize is "the recognition of many years of research", he confirms. "But more importantly, for a woman who is dedicated to theological ethics, and who works on the frontiers of the discipline, it means academic and ecclesiastical validation that heralds a new approach to the understanding of morality in the Church," she points out.

Also a Doctor in Moral Theology from Comillas, Carolina Montero Orphanopoulos is a former student of the canonical degree from the Faculty of Theology at Comillas and an alumni of the University Master's Degree in Bioethics. "The seven years that I studied at Comillas were profoundly enriching both academically and personally," she says. "I remember the generous availability of every academic I asked for guidance or help". In particular, Montero acknowledges the support of Ignacio Boné, SJ, an expert in the subject of vulnerability from psychiatry, and his thesis supervisor, Javier de la Torre, "who was always demanding and able to recognise my potential and limits, and allowed me to give the best of myself," she says.

On the topic of study she has chosen, she says: "Vulnerability is the constitutive openness of the human being, it is the condition of the permeable, porous being, of someone who is affected and transformed in the interaction with their environment, with themselves, with others and with that which transcends them". Moreover, "it is presented as a fundamental axis for the elaboration of a more humanising Christian ethic. It is also a polyvalent, multidisciplinary, counter-cultural concept, deeply rooted in universal humanity and in its singular, biographical and narrative expressions," she adds.

Carolina Montero currently works as a researcher and lecturer at the Catholic University Silva Henríquez (Santiago de Chile) on issues related to vulnerability, bioethics and the Church.