The old cliche claims, “A picture says a thousand words.” This cliche may need to be revisited. When seeing the Facebook pic of Dr. Katie Bouman reacting to the first image of a black hole, I wondered what is more striking? A picture that will become one of history’s most iconic images of a black hole or a smile so full of pure, infectious joy that it has entranced the world. Congratulations Dr. Bouman, your smile is one of the few things powerful enough to rival a picture that carries the historic significance of the Apollo 11 landing! I also think it is noteworthy that this may become the first Facebook profile picture to end up in every science textbook on the planet! Sadly, the vicious nature of social media is trying to damage this wonderful scientist’s achievement. Ignoring the fact that Dr. Bouman is downplaying her role in this image, giving equal if not more credit to the international … Continue reading →

One of the occupational hazards of priesthood is becoming a “workaholic.” Priests are encouraged to take a day off every week as part of our Sabbath rest. This sounds simple enough, but between weekend Masses, sick calls, funerals, daily Mass, religious education for the parish, committee meetings, parish events, social outreach, and making sure the parish’s boilers are in good working order, it is easy to fall into the trap of never taking time away from the work we do as clergy. As is the case with many priests, I found myself in just such a scenario about two years ago. Without getting into the details, I began to see that the ministry I loved was actually creating health warning signs that I was approaching burnout. Now that I can look in the proverbial rear-view-mirror and feel thankful that the burnout I experienced is no longer a part of my priestly ministry, I now have a new goal: Make sure … Continue reading →

As I mentioned last week, God blessed me with a wonderfully restful vacation after the Faith and Astronomy Workshop. Restful, that is, until my cellphone died and lost all ability to use the navigation software. When it first happened, I thought, “I’ve been driving these roads in Phoenix, Arizona for four days now – I’ll be fine without Siri.” Four hours later, I thanked God for helping me find the house I was staying at, exhausted from the mental stress of asking, “What is this place, how did I get here, and how do I get home?!” In my defense, even parishioners who spend a great deal of time snow birding (a term used to identify primarily retired people from Wisconsin who spend the bulk of winter in Arizona) complemented me on my courage to try to navigate the city of Phoenix with no GPS. Nevertheless, there is something of the rural kid in me that felt like I failed … Continue reading →

First of all, my apologies for my brief absence from The Catholic Astronomer. I was at the Faith and Astronomy Workshop in Tucson and then was blessed with a week of vacation in Arizona the week after. Though it was a bit of a shock to fly out of Phoenix at 73 degrees and arrive at Minneapolis/St. Paul at -3 degrees, it’s good to be home! FAW2019 was a wonderful success! Now that we have had four workshops, I feel as though we’re “finding our groove.” The main takeaway I had this year was the theme of faith and science not as dueling ideologies, but people developing relationships (both healthy and dysfunctional). It is through these relationships that the true bridge between faith and science emerges through people exploring the wonders of our universe and our common home – both natural and supernatural. We discussed how the strongest bridge between faith and science is not a series of apologetic arguments, but … Continue reading →