The prestigious 2025 Josef Pieper Prize has been awarded to the Word on Fire Ministries founder and social media personality Bishop Robert Barron in recognition of his work promoting and explaining Christian ideas and culture.
Instituted in 2004, the award from the Josef Pieper Foundation in Münster, Germany, is conferred every five years in recognition of outstanding works upholding Christian-based anthropology. It was presented to Bishop Barron of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, on 27 July at the award ceremony in Münster, reports OSV News.
It notes that the award takes its name from the acclaimed 20th-century German Catholic social philosopher who distilled the thoughts of St. Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers into clear, accessible prose. Pieper’s work, which earned praise from the likes of the poet T. S. Eliot, had a particular focus on the interconnectedness of virtue, happiness, morality, truth and reality. The prize seeks to further Pieper's legacy.
Speaking at the award ceremony, Bishop Stefan Oster of Passau, Germany, described Bishop Barron as being “like Josef Pieper himself … a master of presenting complex content in understandable and beautiful language."
Bishop Oster, who makes regular use of social media in his own ministry, noted that Bishop Barron had been an early and skilled adopter of using new media for evangelisation, OSV News reports.
“He used YouTube videos for the first time twenty-five years ago to enter into a conversation with contemporary culture like almost no other churchman,” said Bishop Oster.
He added that Bishop Barron’s extensive training in philosophy and Scripture and his willingness to engage “with figures of all political and ecclesiastical persuasion” had also helped advance the proclamation of the Gospel.
"Far more important is that he is a praying man,” the German prelate added, “in my view, it is the decisive factor.”
Oster explained: “He constantly calls us as Christians, especially those who are involved in preaching, to the ‘holy hour', the daily hour with the Lord, by the Liturgy of the Hours, by reading the Scriptures, by adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. If you ask me where Bishop Barron receives the ability to ignite (faith in others) … the all-important source is here.”
In an interview with German Catholic television station K-TV, Bishop Barron said: “I’ve always felt [Pieper is] one of the best kind of introductory writers in terms of Thomas Aquinas."
Barron explained: "He’s a model of good writing. He writes very deeply, but also simply. His writing isn’t weighed down by all sorts of academic jargon. It’s more straightforward. I appreciate that about him.
"And I think he’s one of the clearest writers in the 20th-century in the Catholic tradition. So to receive the award in his name is a great honour to me because he’s someone I’ve tried to imitate in my own writing.”
The awarding of the prize to Barron drew protests from the Münster chapter of the German Catholic women’s group Katholische Frauengemeinschaft Deutschlands. On its website, the group described giving the award to Bishop Barron as “a fatal sign” due to “his hostility towards queer people, his closeness to President Trump, and his lack of criticism of his human rights violations”.
OSV News notes that in May 2025, President Donald Trump named Bishop Barron and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York as members of his newly established Religious Liberty Commission. In addition, four other bishops, along with a Catholic parish priest and other religious leaders were named to an advisory board for the commission.
Bishop Barron in his writings and addresses has emphasised the need for the pastoral care of and the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals within the Church, OSV News notes. Though it adds how Barron has also has said that the Church must be clear about its own teaching, calling all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction, to conversion and a fullness of life that aligns with Catholic moral teaching.
Previous winners of the award include the German Catholic philosopher and author Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz and the German philosopher and author Rüdiger Safranski.
Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, a prominent critic of Germany's "Synodal Path" reform project and an advocate of Pope Benedict XVI's teachings, reports the National Catholic Register, was awarded the prize in 2019.
Rüdiger Safranski received the award in 2014 for his work as a literary scholar, philosopher and author. He is known for examining the cultural history of time, especially his diagnosis of a worldwide shortage of time due to economic purposes and of the enslavement of people through an ever tighter system of time management and pressures.
Photo: Bishop Robert Barron, with US President Donald Trump, speaks during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Washington, DC, 1 May 2025. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images.)
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