Video 20 minutes Level: all audiences A presentation for high school students by Vatican Observatory Director Br. Guy Consolmagno, a self-described nerd whose boss is the Pope, on his own choices, on God, and on studying the universe.
Continue reading →Article 5000 words Level: high school and above This 2019 article is unique in that it is an article about a Catholic scientist, written by a Catholic scientist and published in a Catholic journal. The article is about Fr. George Lemaître, the inventor of the Big Bang theory. The writer is Jonathan Lunine, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell University, director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and vice president of the Society of Catholic Scientists. The journal is the University of Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. Lunine writes that On October 29th of 2018, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) voted to recommend renaming Hubble’s Law the “Hubble-Lemaître Law.” That such a vote would take place today—during a time when science and faith are portrayed in the media as implacable foes—speaks to the remarkable character of Lemaître himself, the Belgian monsignor and astronomer who made a number of fundamental contributions to the … Continue reading →
Videos (5) Each video approximately 3 minutes Level: all audiences Fr. William Stoeger, S. J. (1943-2014) was a staff scientist for the Vatican Observatory Research Group in Tucson, specializing in theoretical cosmology, high-energy astrophysics, and interdisciplinary studies relating to science, philosophy and theology. In these videos from Loyola Productions Munich he responds to a variety of questions. The videos were recorded in 2001.
Continue reading →Article (Flyer) 4 pages Level: high school and above A January 2020 flyer produced by the Vatican Observatory Foundation that highlights the science done with the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT. The flyer was created for the 25th anniversary of the VATT. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Audio series 3 hours Level: all audiences This is a series of conversations between Dr. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, and Dr. Michelle Francl-Donnay, professor of chemistry and the chair of the chemistry department at Bryn Mawr College, and an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory. The interviews are published by Now You Know Media. From the web site of Now You Know: In Seeking the Face of God, two leading scientists from the Vatican Observatory debate what it means to be a practicing Catholic and a professional scientist. Tracing back across 1,000 years of history, you’ll reflect on the role of faith in science…. Beginning with a brief overview of the history of science, Consolmagno and Francl-Donnay highlight Catholic contributions to medicine, mathematics, computer science, astronomy, and chemistry before arriving at the question of our place in the cosmos. While some, like Gregor Mendel, are famous for their discoveries, Consolmagno and Francl-Donnay introduce you to … Continue reading →
Article 4 pages Level: all 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 … Continue reading →
Article 4 pages Level: high school 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 →
Video 17 minutes Level: all 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 →Article 1700 words Level: all 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 … Continue reading →
Article 900 words Level: all 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.
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