Astronomy and the Church Archives - Vatican Observatory Foundation Faith and Science

The Pope and the Comet

Article 4 pages General audiences This brief article (published in 1908 in Popular Astronomy) by Fr. William F. Rigge, S. J., an astronomer at Creighton University, debunks the story that Pope Callixtus III invoked his papal authority against Halley’s comet. Rigge writes that “it seems that no article can be written on Halley’s comet without bringing in the oft-told story of the bull which Pope Callixtus III so ineffectually launched against it….” Rigge cites several pieces of evidence against this story, the strongest being that not that many documents were produced during the short papacy of Callixtus III, and Fr. Rigge was able to read them all. “It was an easy task for me to read all the documents of this pope,” he writes, “and I can attest from my own personal knowledge that not only is there no bull against or concerning a comet, there is not even a paragraph, nor a phrase, nor a word, which might be construed … Continue reading →

On Stellar Spectrometry

Article 4 pages High school level and above This is an 1868 paper by Fr. Angelo Secchi, who conducted pioneering research into the nature of stars and whose work laid the foundations for the modern Vatican Observatory. Here Fr. Secchi groups stars by the characteristics of their spectra, noting that stars seem to fall into a certain number of types. He writes, “We have therefore, without doubt, in the heavens a grand fact, the fundamental distinction between the stars according to a small number of types; this opens a field for very many important cosmological speculations.” He also notes that observing the spectra of stars can tell us something about their motions. Indeed, studying the motions of stars by means of their spectra has yielded all sorts of information about them, including whether they have planets orbiting them. Fr. Secchi’s paper was published in the Report of the Thirty-Eighth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science [1868]. Click … Continue reading →

Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J., Jesuit Astrophysicist

Video 17 minutes General Audiences Fr. Angelo Secchi, S.J., father of astrophysics, is one of the greatest astronomers you have never heard of. Discover why, and find out about his contributions to stellar spectroscopy, solar physics, terrestrial magnetism, meteorology, and oceanography. This video features contributions from Ileana Chinnici, Aldo Altamore, Fr. Matteo Galaverni, and Vatican Observatory Director Br. Guy Consolmagno. It was produced by Br. Bob Macke, S.J. of the Vatican Observatory. … Continue reading →

Finding God in the Cosmos: An Interview with a Vatican Astronomer

Article 1700 words General Audiences A 2018 interview of Vatican Observatory astronomer David Brown, S.J., by Sean Salai, S.J., for America: The Jesuit Review. Salai writes: David Brown, S.J., is a Vatican astronomer specializing in stellar evolution and a native of New Orleans who joined the Society of Jesus in 1991 after earning his B.S. in physics at Texas A&M University. Ordained a priest in 2002, Father Brown completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Oxford in England in 2008. Father Brown joined the Vatican Observatory in November 2008, working as a research astronomer and serving as caretaker of the telescopes in Castel Gandolfo. He is a member since 2009 of the American Astronomical Society and since 2012 of the International Astronomical Union. On Oct. 2, I interviewed him at Rockhurst High School during a lecture stop in Kansas City. The focus of the interview is the overlap between Fr. Brown’s vocation as a Jesuit and his work … Continue reading →

God Is Also a Cosmologist

Article 900 words General Audiences This New York Times article is about an international gathering of cosmologists and astrophysicists hosted by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, in Berkeley, California in 1997. The purpose of the conference was to explore how contemporary cosmology, the scientific study of the universe, might be compatible with various religions, with focus on the three monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Featured in the article are Joel Primack, a cosmologist at the University of California at Santa Cruz; Andrei Linde, a Stanford University physicist; John Barrow, from Sussex University; Edward Harrison, an astrophysicist with the University of Massachusetts; and Fr. William Stoeger, S.J., of the Vatican Observatory Research Group at the University of Arizona at Tucson. Click here to access this article courtesy of The New York Times. … Continue reading →

The Vatican observatory, Castel Gandolfo: 80th anniversary celebration

Book 265 pages University level This book was edited by Vatican Observatory astronomers Gabriele Gionti, S. J., and Jean-Baptiste Kikwaya Eluo, S.J., and published in 2018 by Springer. It includes articles on a variety of topics related to the Vatican Observatory, its history, and the work of its astronomers. These topics include the Leap Second Debate, a historical telescope, cosmology, near Earth objects, outreach to the popular press, philosophy, stellar and galactic astronomy, and more. From the publisher: This book presents contributions from an internal symposium [September 2015] organized to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Specola Vaticana, or Vatican Observatory, in the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo. The aim is to provide an overview of the scientific and cultural work being undertaken at the Observatory today and to describe the outcomes of important recent investigations. The contents cover interesting topics in a variety of areas, including planetary science and instrumentation, stellar evolution and stars, galaxies, cosmology, quantum gravity, the history of astronomy, … Continue reading →

The Church opposed to Science

Article (book chapter) 11 pages High school level and above This is a chapter from an 1895 book entitled Plain Facts for Fair Minds: An Appeal to Candor and Common Sense, by George M. Searle, “Priest of the Congregation of St. Paul the Apostle; Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in the Catholic University of America and Director of the Observatory”. George Searle was an astronomer with the Harvard Observatory who converted to Catholicism, entered the priesthood, and then continued his scientific work at the Catholic University of America. Fr. Searle was eventually elected superior-general of the Paulists, serving from 1904 to 1910. Plain Facts was written for a non-Catholic audience, in a time when the status of Catholics and the Catholic church in the USA was different from today. Fr. Searle states in the introduction to Plain Facts that the book is— addressed principally to what are commonly called Bible Christians, who form the majority of our Protestant population, in order to … Continue reading →

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law

Article (2) 1900 words (total) General audiences In October 2018 the International Astronomical Union voted overwhelmingly to change the name of the “Hubble law” (relating distance and velocity in the universe’s expansion) to the “Hubble–Lemaître law”, thus including the name of Fr. Georges Lemaître in the law. These are two articles from the prominent journals Science and Nature discussing the IAU vote. Click here for an article on the vote from Nature. Click here for an article on the vote from Science. … Continue reading →

Who Discovered the Expanding Universe

Article 22 pages University level Historians of science Helge Kragh and Robert W. Smith provide an overview of the discovery of the expanding universe and who might be credited with making that discovery. They argue that, while Edwin Hubble is generally credited with the discovery of the expansion of the universe, and while a number of different scientists did in fact contribute to the discovery in significant ways, in fact Fr. Georges Lemaître discovered the expansion of the universe, insofar as he gave theoretical and observational reasons for it. (Lemaître would go on to become a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, and to serve as its president from 1960 until his death in 1966). Hubble, meanwhile was ambivilant towards the whole concept of an expanding universe. Kragh and Smith also discuss why Hubble is credited with the discovery. They trace the history of how Hubble’s role in the discovery was elevated, “at the expense of everyone … Continue reading →

Ciencia y fe: el origen del universo. Georges Lemaître: el padre del big-bang

Article 3000 words High school level and above Part of a body of work produced by the Grupo Ciencia, Razón y Fe at Universidad de Navarra, this article by Mariano Artigas provides an introduction to Fr. Georges Lemaître, “el padre del big-bang”. Artigas writes: Lemaître dejó clara constancia de sus ideas sobre las relaciones entre ciencia y fe. Uno de sus textos resulta especialmente esclarecedor: «El científico cristiano debe dominar y aplicar con sagacidad la técnica especial adecuada a su problema. Tiene los mismos medios que su colega no creyente. También tiene la misma libertad de espíritu, al menos si la idea que se hace de las verdades religiosas está a la altura de su formación científica. Sabe que todo ha sido hecho por Dios, pero sabe también que Dios no sustituye a sus creaturas. La actividad divina omnipresente se encuentra por doquier esencialmente oculta. Nunca se podrá reducir el Ser supremo a una hipótesis científica. La revelación divina no … Continue reading →

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Category Archives: Astronomy and the Church