On 22 June 2016, Professor Tomáš Halík, Czech theologian and philosopher, received the degree of the Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) from Oxford University. Only three other Czechs had received the same honour before him: the Czechoslovak president, philosopher, and sociologist Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk in 1927, the Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš in March 1940, and the Czechoslovak president and playwright Václav Havel in 1998.
Other recipients of the honorary doctorate include Professor Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize laureate for economics; Lord Mance, judge of the United Kingdom Supreme Court; Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima; chief designer of Apple Jonathan Ive; Estonian composer Arvo Pärt; and Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar.
In March 2016, Tomáš Halík initiated the foundation of an international think-tank at CUFA, which will be connected with some of the most excellent universities of the world, especially with Oxford University, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame, and the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. The Centre for Political Philosophy, Ethics and Religion at CUFA, which started its activities in June 2016, aims to create a network of international cooperation with prestigious universities all over the world.
