Tag Archives: Pope Francis

ⓜ Million Miles Away… Diary of 8 September, 2019

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The Irish blues singer Rory Gallagher… the last Star Wars movie… the discovery of pulsars… the Dean of York Cathedral… and Pope Francis. That pretty much summarizes my diary for August. Oh, you want to hear more, you say? But first, our stats: As of today, we have 139 paid subscribers… that’s only one more than last month. On the other hand, there are 9051 people who get notified of new postings, a jump of nearly 200 compared to last month. We continue to grow, but not nearly fast enough to keep us in business. We pay our writers (a pittance, but still it’s something) and the web site and its support does not come for free. Please tell more people about our site. And if you can, please subscribe at a rate of $10 a month (that’s two visits to Subway for me) or $100 per year. And tell your friends about the site. If we could double the size … Continue reading →

Own your own space-time continuum!

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This entry is part 45 of 45 in the series Diary

So, last week Pope Francis met in a private audience with the sixteen members of the Vatican Observatory. We presented the Pope with the published proceedings of a recent workshop we’d held on Gravitation and Black Holes — how we understand the fabric of space and time warped together in the deepest regions of space. That meeting had included Nobel Prize winners and other notables from the field; the Pope had met them, too. But another gift that we gave the Pope tells a deeper story. We also offered him a copy of our 2020 astronomical calendar. Every year, the Vatican Observatory Foundation publishes a calendar full of glorious astronomical images and marking significant dates in the history of our science. It’s a way of raising money to help support our telescope and our outreach efforts. But hundreds of these calendars are also given away, for free, to inmates in San Quentin and other prisons. All the prisoners have to do … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Father’s Day

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This entry is part 185 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column from The Tablet was first published in June, 2018 The students of the Vatican Observatory’s biennial summer school (2018’s year’s topic, stellar variability in the era of large surveys) were received by Pope Francis in a private audience on June 14, 2018. Introducing them, I mentioned to the Pope that along with four weeks of heavy astrophysics our school is also including special lectures to reflect on not only what we are studying, but why we study it.   “Why does the Vatican have an Observatory?” That common question begs the bigger one, why anyone does astronomy. Contrary to what our culture preaches, astronomy doesn’t make you rich, powerful, or sexy. (Maybe that’s why my Jesuit vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience felt so natural.) What astronomy does do, however, is give you the space to contemplate questions bigger than “what’s for lunch?” Doing science is a way of becoming intimate with creation, and thus with the Creator. … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Eccentric visitor

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This entry is part 8 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in October 2017 Studying the universe forces us to see ourselves in a new and often disorienting context. It’s not always easy. Talking with astronauts aboard the International Space Station on October 26 [2017], Pope Francis asked them, “traveling in space, thinking about things we take for granted here on Earth like the concept of “up” or “down”… tell us, is there something in particular that has surprised you, living in the Space Station?” The American astronaut Mark VandeHei replied, “in this environment, where we really don’t need the concept of up and down, to get my bearings I still have to decide which direction to perceive as up.” Every day in my meteorite lab I work with rocks that have passed through the sky (“meteorite” comes from the Greek word for sky), tangible evidence that the clouds are not an impenetrable barrier between us and rest of the solar system. We can … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Information and truth

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This entry is part 173 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in May 2017 The British fantasy writer Neil Gaiman tells the story of attending a gathering of great writers, scholars, and thinkers, and wondering if he really belonged in that group. Next to him, another attendee also named Neil voiced similar doubts. “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.” To which Gaiman replied, “Yes. But you were the first man on the Moon. I think that counts for something.”   In that spirit, in May 2017 I presented to Pope Francis the attendees of our workshop on Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Space-time Singularities. The scientists included 35 of the brightest in the field, including a Nobel laureate. Two of them gave the Pope a copy of their work announcing the discovery of gravitational waves. (I gave the Pope a book written by … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Hidden inclusions

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This entry is part 130 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in July 2013 I was in a state of high excitement (or what passes for such when you’re sixty years old): the Pope was coming to lunch with our Jesuit community at the Vatican Observatory! Meanwhile, I was also preparing a paper for the annual Meteoritical Society meeting, and I had just noticed a wonderful correlation in my data. These sorts of insights are as rare as Papal visits… if indeed I had really made one. I’ve been studying iron meteorites; and it’s been hard work. For one thing, they are, quite literally, hard – lumps of nickel-iron, too hard to cut up easily to see what’s inside. I’ve seen iron meteorites being cut at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC; their saw sits in a room the size of gymnasium, makes an awful racket, and spews water everywhere. (The water cools the meteorite while a diamond-encrusted wire scrapes through it.) When you do … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Song of Praise

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This entry is part 123 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in May 2016 When Pope Francis issued his groundbreaking encyclical, Laudato Sì, the Italian publishing house Elledici took the moment to reissue a book written in the 1960s by the Italian scientist Enrico Medi: Canitco di Frate Sole, a meditation on the Franciscan poem that gave Pope Francis his title. At that time, they asked me as the “Pope’s astronomer” to write an introduction for the book. On first anniversary of the Pope’s encyclical, in 2016, I was invited to Medi’s home town of Senigalia, on the Adriatic coast, to celebrate the publication of this book. I’d never heard of Medi; but I discovered that he was the spokesperson of his generation in Italy on faith and science. Reading his words, even with my poor Italian, I can see why. For example, in one chapter Medi begins with our scientific understanding of water as a marvelous molecule, but he arrives at finding in … Continue reading →

Across the Universe: Faith and Expectations

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This entry is part 111 of 187 in the series Across the Universe

This column first ran in The Tablet in March 2013, soon after the election of Pope Francis How do I feel about a Pope who is not only a fellow Jesuit, but one who’s studied science (in his case, chemistry) as well? To be honest, I am terrified. For the past twenty years I have lived off the expectations that others have of Jesuits and scientists; now I am going to have to deal with someone who can see past the mystique. Familiarity breeds a certain discomfort. I can only imagine what it’s like for our Observatory’s director, Fr. Funes, who is himself not only a Jesuit and scientist but also from Argentina. [In fact, as it later came out, when José first began the process of entering the Jesuits as a young man, one of the Argentinian Jesuits who interviewed him was a certain Father Bergoglio…] Pope Francis’ chemistry background has not gone unnoticed in the scientific world. A … Continue reading →

COP21: Understanding the Paris Climate Change Conference in Light of Laudato Si’.

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This entry is part of 27 in the series Integral Ecology

It’s no secret that one of Pope Francis’ goals with his Encyclical Laudato Si’ was to influence the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21).  So, how much influence is Laudato Si’ having upon COP21?  Since I am the pastor of a parish and not a member of the media, I’ll leave that question for others to answer.  However, by analyzing what is coming out of the meetings through the media, I feel confident in saying that COP21 is definitely adapting the same mentality Pope Francis encouraged the fathers (and mothers) of the Synod on Marriage and Family Life to have: Speak boldly and hold nothing back.  My proof of this is that, on the first day of the gathering, a coalition of close to 40 countries and a myriad of business leaders have called for an end to fossil fuel subsidies; France is investing two billion Euros to help Africa develop renewable energy sources; and a coalition of 11 countries, including the United States, has given 248 million … Continue reading →

Catholicism, Evolution, and Intelligent Design: What is the Relationship?

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Growing up as a Catholic youth in the 80’s and 90’s meant my vision of Catholicism was profoundly shaped by St. John Paul II. Whether it be camping out in Denver’s Cherry Creek Park at World Youth Day or trying to read his dense, philosophical writings, it seemed that almost every word that came from JPII’s mouth became the backdrop for how to interpret Jesus Christ and the Church. I emphasize the phrase “almost every word” because two areas of his writing that were not universally embraced were Catholic Social Teaching and Evolution. Though some argue over the intent of St. John Paul II’s statements about evolution in his 1996 Message on Evolution to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the fact remains that he affirmed Pius XII’s teaching from Humani Generis that evolution is not in conflict with Church teaching as long as evolution is restricted to the material origin of ours bodies, affirming that the soul is created by God alone. (paragraph 36) When … Continue reading →