The juries for the Bellarmino Award and the Vedovato Award met to assign the two prizes that the Pontifical Gregorian University gives annually to the best doctoral dissertations defended during the previous calendar year. The two awards were established to stimulate scientific research in the Faculty of Theology and in one of the disciplines of the other Faculties or Institutes, as well as in the field of ethics in international relations.

The Bellarmine Award 2021 for the best doctoral dissertation defended in the Faculty of Theology was assigned to Fr. Maxime Deurbergue for the doctoral dissertation La Chair comme voix. Une théologie des images à la lumière de la polarité entre image et histoire dans la décision dogmatique de Nicée II, moderated by Prof. Etienne Vetö, ICN.

The Bellarmine Award 2021 for the best doctoral dissertation defended in one of the other Faculties or Institutes was assigned to Massimiliano Pollini (Faculty of Philosophy) for his doctoral dissertation Lineamenti della filosofia delle persone di Robert Spaemann. Una fisionomia della realtà della persona come essere-per-sé-una ed essere-per-altri, moderated by Prof. Jakub Gorczyca, S.J.

The Vedovato Award 2021 was assigned ex aequo to Fr. Alessandro Picchiarelli (Faculty of Theology) for his doctoral dissertation Tra profilazione e discernimento: la teologia morale nel tempo dell'algoritmo, moderated by Prof. Paolo Benanti, TOR; and to Danilo Turco (Faculty of Social Sciences) for his doctoral dissertation The Dublin Regulation. A legal, sociological and ethical analysis, moderated by Prof. René Micallef, S.J.

The awards will be conferred during the Academic Year Conclusion Ceremony, which will take place in the Aula Magna on Monday 24 May and will be streamed live at bit.ly/conclusione2021