Category Archives: Priests and Religious of Science

The Far Sun – Far Beyond Comprehension

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Does it seem dim outside?  Well, it should—sort of.  Because it is dim outside—sort of. On this past Thursday, July 4, just before the end of the day as seen from London (at 11:10 pm British Standard Time), the Earth was at the aphelion point of its orbit—the point at which it is farthest from the sun.  At that time it was 94,513,221 miles from the sun.  By contrast, at its perihelion point (closest to the sun), on January 3, Earth was merely 91,403,554 miles from the sun. Earth is over 3,100,000 miles farther away from the sun now than it was in January.  Of course, that is only a 3.4% difference.  But if you observed the sun carefully, and measured its apparent diameter, you could see that difference.  The fact that the distance between the sun and the Earth changes has been known since antiquity. The sun is a remarkable object, really beyond our comprehension in many ways. First … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Fr. Giuseppe Piazzi C.R. (1746-1826), Discoverer of the First Asteroid

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This entry is part 5 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Today, just under 800,000 asteroids and Trans Neptunian Objects are known and catalogued by the Minor Planet Center of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, with more being discovered every day.  However, before 1800 the existence of this entire class of objects was entirely unknown. The first asteroid, which today we know as (1) Ceres, was discovered by an astronomer who was also a priest: Fr. Giuseppe Piazzi C.R. Biographical Sketch Giuseppe Piazzi was born July 16, 1746 in Ponte in Valtellina, Italy.  He entered the Theatine order in 1765, and was ordained a priest in 1769.  While he taught philosophy, theology, and mathematics at various stages of his early life in the order, he also had an interest in astronomy. He came to Palermo in 1781 as a lecturer in mathematics at the Accademia dei Regi Studi. In 1787, he became professor of astronomy. King Ferdinand of Sicily named him to be the first director of the Palermo Astronomical Observatory. He obtained … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Msgr. Georges Lemaître (1894-1966), Father of the Big Bang

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This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Many thanks to Dominique Lambert, who provided me with several articles and a full biography that were used to create this post. Georges Lemaître was a priest of the diocese of Louvain, in Belgium.  The proposer of what would become known as the Big Bang Theory was one of the more influential astrophysicists of his lifetime.  Albert Einstein even once skipped one of his own public appearances in order to converse with Lemaître over deep cosmological problems. Biographical Sketch: Georges Lemaître was born July 17, 1894 in the mining town of Charleroi, Belgium.  He studied at the Jesuit school Collège du Sacre Coeur, and then prepared to study mining engineering, as was typical of bright students in the area. With the advent of World War I, he enlisted and served with the artillery, where he received a formal reprimand for correcting an error in the artillery manual. After his discharge, he decided to study physics and mathematics. In 1920 he … Continue reading →

How a Jesuit Astronomer and His Student beat Isaac Newton to a Key Idea by more than 50 Years

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In 1614, well before Isaac Newton was even born, a German Jesuit astronomer named Christoph Scheiner and his student, Johann Georg Locher, developed an explanation for how the Earth could orbit the sun.  Earth, they said, was like a massive ball, perpetually falling toward the sun.  They discussed this in their 1614 book Disquisitiones Mathematicae de Controversiis et Novitatibus Astronomicis, or Mathematical Disquisitions Concerning Astronomical Controversies and Novelties (recently translated by yours truly, and published by the University of Notre Dame Press—click here).  This was Locher’s thesis for his degree from the University of Ingolstadt, where Fr. Scheiner taught. Fr. Scheiner is a relatively well-known figure in the history of astronomy.  He is the astronomer with whom Galileo debated regarding sunspots; he would go on to write a monumental 1630 book based on his long-term, detailed solar observations: Rosa Ursina Sive Sol.  This book would define solar astronomy for decades.  By contrast, not much is known about Locher.  Galileo himself … Continue reading →

How Frs. Riccioli and Dechales Argued that Science Shows the Earth to be at Rest – The Coriolis Effect (re-run)

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This is a “re-run” of a post that originally ran on July 19, 2017. My post for next week will feature Fr. Riccioli and the Coriolis Effect, so revisiting this topic seems like a good idea. The Coriolis Effect is an apparent deflection of projectiles and falling bodies that is caused by the rotation of the Earth. It is named for Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis, a French scientist who described it mathematically in the early 19th century. It is responsible for the rotation of weather patterns such as hurricanes. But it turns out that a century and a half before Coriolis did his work, other scientists were discussing the Coriolis Effect. These scientists were Jesuits—Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, who discussed the effect in his 1651 book Almagestum Novum, and Fr. Claude François Milliet Dechales, who discussed the effect and included some nice simple diagrams of it in his 1674 book Cursus seu Mundus Mathematicae. What is interesting about this is that … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: abbot Gregor J. Mendel O.S.A. (1822-1884), Father of Genetics

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This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

Back when I taught an introductory-level astronomy class at university, I would start the course with a short unit on what science is and on the relationship between faith and science. I would mention Gregor Mendel as an example of a religious scientist because anyone who has taken high school biology knows the name.  So then I would ask the class what they know about him. “Father of genetics,” one person would say. Another student would pipe in, “He was a monk!” A third would offer something about “<mumble, mumble> pea plants.” At this point, I would then ask, “Okay, so given what you know about him, what do you think his job (his daily work) at the monastery was?” Every time I taught this unit, and almost every time I have brought up this example with peers (there’s always someone who spoils the trend eventually), I got the response, “He was the gardener.” It makes a certain sort of sense.  … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists: Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J. (1818-1878), Pioneer of Astrophysics

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This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

(This is the first article in the column “Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church” which looks at the lives and contributions of prominent vowed religious scientists.) The year 2018 marked the 200th anniversary of the birth of Fr. Angelo Secchi SJ, and so there have already been several articles on Fr. Secchi in this blog.  An interested reader could review any of these articles: “Ghost of elements, spectres of the universe: Angelo Secchi SJ” by Michelle Francl, Aug 8, 2018. “Solar Prominences and a Prominent Jesuit Astronomer” by Robert Macke, Oct 23, 2018. “Happy Birthday to the Father of Astrophysics!” by Guy Consolmagno, June 28, 2018. And outside the blog, here’s another article I wrote about Secchi’s oceanographic studies: “Fr. Angelo Secchi, S.J. and the Voyage of the Immacolata Concezione” by Robert Macke, International Society of Limnology webpage For the YouTube generation, here is a video to watch: Why begin this series with a scientist for whom so much has already … Continue reading →

Religious Scientists – An Introduction

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This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Religious Scientists of the Catholic Church

As this is a new column for the blog, it might be appropriate to begin with a small introduction. In the motu proprio “Ut Mysticam”—the document establishing the Vatican Observatory in 1891—Pope Leo XIII wrote that the reason for creating such an institution in the Vatican was “…that everyone might see clearly that the Church and her Pastors are not opposed to true and solid science, whether human or divine, but that they embrace it, encourage it, and promote it with the fullest possible dedication.” Primarily, the Vatican Observatory addresses this mission through its scientific endeavors. We are all vowed religious members of the Catholic Church who are respected scientists making valuable contributions in our fields. Through this we are a sign to the world of the compatibility of faith and science through the example of our own lives. It would be a mistake to think that the Vatican Observatory serves as the only such example of science performed in … Continue reading →

Tombs of the Unknown Scientists

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On Cemetery Hill in Springfield, Kentucky, in the “Holy Land” of Kentucky, stands a monument “dedicated to those who lost their lives in the Cholera epidemics of 1833 and 1854, and to Louis Sansbury, a black man who cared for and buried the victims in these approximately 106 unmarked graves”. The “Holy Land” in central Kentucky is home to much U.S. Catholic history. Here is where Catholicism first took root away from the coasts as the United States expanded westward. The first diocese in the U.S. was established in Baltimore, Maryland in 1789, but in 1808 four new dioceses were established in the U.S.: the diocese of Boston, the diocese of New York, the diocese of Philadelphia, and the diocese of Bardstown, Kentucky (which later became the Archdiocese of Louisville). Thus Bardstown is home to St. Joseph’s proto-cathedral. The “Holy Land” is also home to numerous churches, many dating back into the late eighteenth century, including the oldest Dominican church … Continue reading →

July 1922 – The Pope Views the Planets

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The planets are going away. As we head into winter, that glorious chain of planets that has been strung across the evening sky for months is disappearing into the sunset. Back in August you could just walk outside and see Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (and often the moon) lined up from west to east across the zodiac constellations. Now we are down to just Mars and Saturn, and soon enough it will just be Mars, and then none. Back in 1922 the planets were lined up in the summer sky much like they were this summer, and Pope Pius XI, who liked astronomy and was very involved with the Vatican Observatory, got a look at them through one of the V.O. telescopes. The V.O. telescopes were at that time on the grounds of the Vatican itself, mounted along one of the walls, right by St. Peter’s, as can been seen in this cool photo from that era. According to … Continue reading →

IAU Adds Lemaître’s Name to Hubble Law

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This year marked my first opportunity to attend a general assembly of the International Astronomical Union.  It was an exciting two weeks in which scientists from all branches of astronomy and space physics gathered in beautiful Vienna, Austria to discuss their research and to do the work of the IAU.  Walking around the meeting venue, one could see astronomers of all stripes, from all over the world, and occasionally one could catch a glimpse of one of the “Big Names” in astronomy wandering about, usually in heated discussion with others about some important topic or other. What makes the IAU different from other scientific meetings is that it serves as the governing body for those aspects of astronomy that require universal agreement, such as the naming of stars and asteroids or of features on planets and moons.  It was the IAU that famously voted in 2006 to change the definition of a planet, which resulted in the “demotion” of Pluto … Continue reading →

St. Macrina’s Discourse on Science and Technology

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St. Macrina the Younger has a fascinating fourth-century discourse on science and technology. Macrina, who lived from 330 to 379 A.D., was the sister of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa, and the daughter of St. Emmelia, and the granddaughter of St. Macrina the Elder (saints run thick in that family). Her discourse on science and technology was recorded by St. Gregory: it was part of their dialogue that became Gregory’s On the Soul and the Resurrection. Macrina discusses how we know more than just what our eyes show us, because through our minds we take what our eyes see and we reason and we calculate; and we come to know, for example, that the sun is far larger than the Earth (science), and how to create machinery that can even imitate human actions (technology). Check out what St. Macrina the Younger has to say—her discourse is available on the Vatican Observatory Faith and Science pages: CLICK … Continue reading →