Video 1.5 hours Level: all audiences Fr. David Brown, S.J, an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, gives a lecture at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, April 6, 2016.
Continue reading →Video 8.5 minutes Level: all audiences Join Br. Bob Macke, S.J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, to find out more about the Pope’s astronomers and their observatory.
Continue reading →Article 6 pages Level: all audiences This article from the May 2000 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine discusses the Vatican Observatory and in particular the Vatican Observatory Summer School (or VOSS) program. THE SMALL, PICTURESQUE TOWN of Castel Gandolfo lies 25 kilometers southeast of Rome. Sitting on top of a ridge 500 meters above sea level, it overlooks the tranquil, greenish blue Lake Albano, formed by the collapse of an ancient volcanic crater. The town’s narrow, cobbled main street leads past little cafes, souvenir shops, and a beautiful church and fountain designed by the 17th-century Italian artist Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. Finally you come to a four-story ocher edifice with small shuttered windows and a pair of massive wooden doors–the Pontifical Palace of the Roman Catholic Church. Officially a part of Vatican City, this is where Pope John Paul II spends the summer months to escape Rome’s oppressive heat and humidity. It is also the headquarters of Vatican Observatory. Every … Continue reading →
Article 6000 words (two parts) Level: high school and above An in-depth interview with Vatican Observatory astronomer Paul Gabor, S. J., by Scott Douglas Jacobsen, published in 2016 by In-Sight. Part One – An interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. He discusses: childhood and adolescence trajectory influence on him, pivotal moments in personal development towards an interest in science and theology, the gains from the research and professional experiences; motivation for interest in philosophy and theology; the way that the priesthood entered and benefits personal life, and the greatest intellectual stimulation from within the Jesuits; origin of interest in physics, the physics of the small scale, and the instrumental side of particle physics; PhD work and entailed work, explanation for the lay person, and the esoteric aspects of this research. Part two – An interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J. He discusses: description of research areas and the reason for personal interest in these areas; entering the ranks of … Continue reading →
Article 200 words Level: all audiences This brief article from the November 5, 1921 issue of America – A Catholic Review of the Week discusses Fr. J. G, Hagen, S. J., of the Vatican Observatory being honored. Click here for the original article, courtesy of Google Books. Two Vatican Savants Honored Attention is called in the Pilot to the recent celebration at Rome of the sixtieth anniversary of the entrance into the Society of Jesus of the famous Vatican Librarian, Father Franz Ehrle, “whose learning and zeal have been recognized by three Roman Pontiffs and who is well known throughout Italy for his studies and researches.” Father Ehrle entered the Jesuit novitiate at Gorheim in September, 1861. His connection with the Roman archives began in 1880 when he undertook a social investigation. In 1889 he published the first volume of his great work on the history of the Papal Library, a monument of careful research, and in 1891 he was made Prefect of the Vatican Library. … Continue reading →
Article 1000 words Level: all audiences Emilia Ponzoni, Regina Colombo, Concetta Finardi and Luigia Panceri were all Sisters of the Holy Child Mary and were part of a global effort in the early twentieth century to make a complete map and catalog of the starry skies. Carol Glatz discusses these nuns and their connection to the Vatican Observatory in this 2016 article. Click here to access this article via Catholic News Service. Click here to access this article via the National Catholic Reporter. Click here for a version of this article from the Smithsonian. Click here for a well-illustrated version from CityLab. Click here for a brief mention of these nuns in a 1919 article entitled “Woman’s Work in Astronomy”, by Dorothea Klumpke Roberts, published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (courtesy of Google Books).
Continue reading →Article (encyclopedia entry) 2 pages Level: all audiences The entry for the Vatican Observatory in the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia. The entry was written by J. G. Hagen, S. J., director of the Observatory at that time. From the article: The Vatican Observatory now bears the official title, “Specola Astronomica Vaticana”. To understand its history it is necessary to remark that the designations osservatorio or specola are not restricted to astronomy, but may mean any elevated locality from which aerial phenomena are observed. From this point of view the history of the Specola Vaticana has passed through four successive stages…. Click here to access this article via Google Books.
Continue reading →Article 5 pages Level: all audiences This 1903 article in the magazine Popular Astronomy describes the Vatican Observatory after it had been re-established by Pope Leo XIII. Some photos are included in the article. The author, W. Alfred Parr, writes: When towards the middle of the ninth century Pope Leo IV sought to stem the further ravages of the Saracen hordes by strengthening the defences of Rome and enclosing the Vatican hill with massive turreted walls, he could little imagine that these same walls, designed so well to bear the engines of war that were to dominate the country round, would, more than a thousand years later, be required by a successor and namesake to harbor a weapon of science of a potency little dreamt of in those days—a weapon whose range of power should penetrate to the confines of the unknown itself. For, after the conclusion of the International Photographic Conference on the charting of the heavens, held in Paris … Continue reading →
Article 3 pages Level: all audiences This 2001 article written by Charles Seife for the journal Science discusses the Pontifical Academy of Science, with a side-bar article on the Vatican Observatory. Seife writes: Since its founding, the Pontifical Academy has numbered among its members such scientific luminaries as Alexander Fleming, Niels Bohr, Chandrasekhara Raman, and Werner Heisenberg (elected in 1955)…. Candidates are nominated and elected by the members, although technically they are appointed by sovereign act of the pontiff—who looks for more than mere scientific eminence. The institution’s charter specifies that members must possess “acknowledged moral personality.”… Once on board, members share a simple set of duties: to meet and talk. Members say they choose their own speakers and topics and debate issues freely. “The Catholic Church is supporting this academy,” says Crodowaldo Pavan, a geneticist at the University of Sao Paulo and a member of the academy. “They pay for this meeting and don’t say what we should say—they give us … Continue reading →
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, March 1994, announcing the dedication of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, or VATT: Click here to access this article via Ebscohost (available in many libraries). Click here to access this article via Archive.org. Progress on Mount Graham Two pacesetting telescopes were dedicated last September 18th at the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham International Observatory. One is the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT), a cooperative project with Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy; the other is the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). Both are presently undergoing final alignment and calibration and will begin science programs this year. After years of contentious debate and judicial wrangling, the opening of these instruments is welcome news for university astronomers who had to overcome objections from such diverse groups as the Sierra Club, Native Americans, and government agencies. Mount Graham had been selected in the early … Continue reading →