We cannot find quick and easy answers for Frequently Asked Questions; if we could, people wouldn’t keep asking them. That means that they’re worth looking at simply as a way of understanding why maybe these aren’t exactly the questions we need to be asking.
Many of the questions that are frequently asked are more general questions about Astronomy and the Church than about the specific topics covered elsewhere in these pages. A discussion of some of these questions can be found here.
A Critique to Astrology from “De Civitate Dei”
Book excerpt 4500 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God concerning the topic of astrology. Augustine uses the issues of twins to criticize astrology from a practical standpoint, but he also attacks astrology from a theological standpoint. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from Inters.org. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from The City of God (book V), from the full text available via Google Books.
Continue reading →A History of the Vatican Observatory
Article (PDF) 35 pages Level: all audiences This is chapter from the book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican. This chapter was written by Fr. Sabino Maffeo, a physicist with the Vatican Observatory since 1985, and is a condensed version of his book In the Service of Nine Popes. Click here to download the chapter.
Continue reading →Across the Universe: Christmas Presence
Article (blog post) 700 words Level: all audiences Vatican observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., writes (in a post for The Catholic Astronomer blog) about both the Book of Job and about how he finds doing science to be like playing a game with God : What’s it like, I am sometimes asked, to be both a Jesuit brother and an astronomer? I can compare it most easily to another memory from my childhood. I can recall a rainy summer afternoon, in our cottage by Lake Huron, spent playing cards with my mother. I couldn’t have been more than nine or ten years old, and I have never been much of a card player, but that wasn’t the point. It was a way for her to spend time with me, a young boy who would squirm at any overt sign of affection, a way of showing me that I was loved…. So how is that like being a Jesuit scientist? Because I feel that … Continue reading →
Across the Universe: Happy Birthday to Us
Article (blog post) 600 words Level: all audiences Vatican Observatory Director Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about the 125th birthday of the Vatican Observatory, and the history that lead to its foundation by Pope Leo XIII. Reflecting on that history, Br. Consolmagno writes: But our cosmological ideas moved from Copernicus’ fixed sun, through Kepler’s elliptical orbits, to Kant’s idea of galaxies as island universes and Herschel’s measurement of our place in the Milky Way. Our modern speculations about multiple universes carry as much a tinge of science fiction as of natural philosophy. One lesson I hope we’ve learned is that no modern cosmology is a good basis for theological doctrine, simply because no matter how well founded our astronomy is we can expect it will eventually go out of date. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Across the Universe: View from afar
Article (blog post) 750 words Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, writes in a post on The Catholic Astronomer blog about using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT to study small bodies in the outer solar system:. By how often they brighten and dim, we measure how fast these bodies spin; by how much their brightness changes during these cycles, we get a measure of their irregular shapes. It is not particularly thrilling work. We point the telescope at a given object; take a three-minute exposure with our electronic camera; and then another exposure; and another; and another… These objects typically take about eight hours or more per spin; so we observe one body per night as it rises, crosses the sky, and sets in the west… checking the images for clarity, tweaking the focus, watching the skies to make sure that clouds are not moving in…. Click here to read the full … Continue reading →
Adventures of a Vatican Astronomer – Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ
Video One hour Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, gave this talk at the SETI Institute on February 22, 2013 No scientist is a Spock-like android; a scientist’s work is as intuitive, and just as full of human foibles, as a painting, a symphony, or a prayer. But most of us don’t have the opportunity (or training) to reflect on the human dimensions of our work. Br. Guy Consolmagno does; he is both a Jesuit brother and a planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, splitting his time between the meteorite collection in Rome (which he curates) and the Vatican telescope in Arizona. Thanks to his Vatican connections, his work has sent him around the world several times to dozens of countries and every continent (including a meteorite hunting expedition to Antarctica). In this talk he will share some of those adventures, and reflect on the larger meaning of our common experience as … Continue reading →
An Interview with Dr. Fr. Paul Gabor, S.J.
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 →
Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →Approaching “Would you baptize an alien?” from the perspective of a Jesuit astronomer
Article (PDF) 5300 words Level: all audiences In November 1995, Fr. Christopher Corbally, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, presented the annual Nash lecture at Campion College. This is the published text of the lecture. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Are we from the stars?
A post by Brenda Frye on the Catholic Astronomer website, noting the fact that all the elements in our bodies (and on our planet) originated in stars.
Continue reading →Astronomy and Belief (Why does the Vatican have an observatory?)
Article 2000 words Level: all audiences An article by Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, addressing the question of why the Vatican has an observatory. This was originally published at ThinkingFaith.org, the online journal of the Jesuits in Britain. Astronomy and Belief ‘Why does the Vatican have an observatory? Aren’t there more important things to do than look at the stars?’ Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno SJ has been asked these questions many times; indeed, he asks them of himself. At an event hosted by the Mount Street Jesuit Centre last month, he explained how he encounters God in his scientific studies. I once caused a stir in a church in Hawaii by announcing that I was ‘an observer from the Vatican.’ Indeed, I am. As it happens, I was in Hawaii to use the telescopes there, just as I also observe with the Vatican’s own telescope in Arizona. That is my job with the Vatican Observatory. Why … Continue reading →
Astronomy and the Catholic Church – Stanley L. Jaki
Article (encyclopedia entry) 4 pages Level: high school and above An article by Fr. Stanley L. Jaki for History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia edited by John Lankford and published in 1996 by Routledge. Routledge describes the book as an encyclopedia that “traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts”. Click here for a preview of this article, courtesy of Google Books. Click here for further information from the publisher.
Continue reading →Astronomy on the Frontier
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences Christopher Graney writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about the first bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, Simon Guillaume Gabriel Bruté de Rémur (1779-1839), and his library. The library contained a significant collection of works on science, which Bishop Bruté hauled all the way to the American frontier from France. Graney writes: It turns out Bruté had been a top-notch student of science—one of the best students in his class at the medical school in Paris. So of course his library would include quite a bit of material on a variety of sciences, including astronomy. Still, Indiana was being settled at the time, and was pretty rough country: the land of Abraham Lincoln’s youth…; a land that had only become a state twenty years earlier; a land from which the Potowatami Indians were being forcibly evicted while Bruté was bishop, passing only a hundred miles to the north on a “Trail of Death.” Was it really worth … Continue reading →
Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance
Article 2800 words Level: all audiences Do faith and science operate in completely separate, non-overlapping realms? In the first of a series of articles for Thinking Faith, Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno, S. J., explores how science works, how scientists work, and the place that faith has in science – simply because scientists are people. Click here to view the original article on Thinking Faith. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Catholic Women of Science: Embracing Pope Francis’ call to elevate the dignity and role of women.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “A woman of great influence who is often identified as a Catholic woman of science is Saint Hildegard von Bingen, Doctor of the Church, who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries. Saint Hildegard was identified as a polymath, meaning someone who has a broad spectrum of intellectual expertise, displaying brilliance in many fields of study.”
Continue reading →Ciencia y fe: el origen del universo. Georges Lemaître: el padre del big-bang
Article 3000 words Level: high school 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 →
Couldn’t God have designed a gentler universe?
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This article on natural evil is taken from the Jesuit web site Thinking Faith; it originally appeared in the magazine The Tablet
Continue reading →Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 1995, announcing the first use 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. Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT Observing is now under way at the new Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona. At the end of January, Richard P. Boyle, S.J. (Vatican Observatory) and Austin B. Tomaney (Columbia University) took the first visible-light images with the 1.8-meter Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). First among the $3-million instrument’s noteworthy attributes is its deep, “salad-bowl” f/1.0 primary mirror (S&T: March 1994, page 12). It was one of the first to be formed by spin-casting techniques developed at the University of Arizona. Such a fast primary requires the secondary to be positioned with micron precision to achieve proper focus. These inaugural images of the Crab Nebula in Taurus … Continue reading →
Discovered at the VATT
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 →Faith in Space: Will A Priest Ever Visit The International Space Station?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer, who concludes, as humanity explores space, let’s never be afraid to insist that every part of humanity be brought to space, developing a deeper appreciation of what this exploration means and how we can appreciate God’s creation anew from a new vantage point through new eyes.
Continue reading →Finding God in the Cosmos: An Interview with a Vatican Astronomer
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 →
Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J., Jesuit Astrophysicist
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 →Francis – Address to Participants in the Summer Course of the Vatican Observatory
Article (Papal Address) 560 words Level: all audiences In 2014 Pope Francis addressed the participants in the Vatican Observatory’s summer school. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Pope Francis notes: Here too we see a further reason for the Church’s commitment to dialogue with the sciences on the basis of the light provided by faith: it is her conviction that faith is capable of both expanding and enriching the horizons of reason. In this dialogue, the Church rejoices in the marvelous progress of science, seeing it as a sign of the enormous God-given potential of the human mind, even as a mother rejoices and is rightly proud as her children grow “in wisdom, and age and grace” (Lk 2:52). Click here for this material from Inters.org. Click here for … Continue reading →
From MIT to Specola Vaticana: Guy Consolmagno at TEDx via Della Conciliazione
Video 17 minutes Level: all audiences Brother Guy Consolmagno weaves stories about science and seeing things in new ways. From TEDx YouTube: Brother Guy Consolmagno is a Planetary Scientist at the Vatican Observatory. He is the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, which is one of the largest in the world. He earned a degree from MIT and did post-doctorate work at MIT and the Harvard College Observatory. When he was 29, he joined the Peace Corps in Kenya. There, he taught suffering people about astronomy. He discovered that the desire for scientific knowledge is not limited to educated westerners, but is original and alive in the poor and uneducated. In this way, he discovered that astronomy belongs to us all. In 1992, he became a Jesuit Brother. In 2000, he was honored by the International Astronomical Union for his contributions to the study of meteorites and asteroids with the naming of “Asteroid 4597 Consolmagno”.
Continue reading →Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
God Is Also a Cosmologist
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.
Continue reading →IHMC STEM Talk, Conversation with Br Consolmagno
Audio One hour Level: all audiences STEM Talk is podcast produced by the IHMC (a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System) that features “Conversations with some of the most interesting people in the world of science and technology”. In this episode, co-host Tom Jones interviews Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, about his life-long journey to understand the universe and the role of faith in that pursuit. Jones is a former NASA astronaut who shares Br. Guy’s love of astronomy and who also studies under the same thesis advisor at MIT, John Lewis. Click here to access the audio and a summary of the topics discussed from IHMC.
Continue reading →Is the Tension Between Faith and Science ‘Merely’ a Breakdown in Communication?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Can the perceived tension between evolution and God as Creator be fully addressed by clarifying a breakdown in communication over the word “random?” Of course, the answer is no. As is the case with many strained relationships, there isn’t just one issue that leads to a breakup. Nevertheless, I do feel that these explorations are needed for both believer and non-believer if we are to move away from faith and science as adversaries and toward a position of faith and science as dialogue partners in search of truth.”
Continue reading →Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Astronomy (1904) – William F. Rigge, S.J.
Article (in three parts) 30 pages (total) Level: all audiences “Jesuit Astronomy”, written John Schreiber, S. J., and by the Creighton University astronomer William F. Rigge, S. J., was published in the magazine Popular Astronomy in 1904. It a broad overview of Jesuit activities in the field of astronomy, from founding of the order in 1540 through the end of the nineteenth century. Click here for the article, Part I, 1st section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part I, 2nd section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 1st section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 2nd section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 3rd section, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Mapping with the stars: Nuns instrumental in Vatican celestial survey
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 →Mathematical Disquisitions – The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo
Book 176 pages Level: high school and above This 2017 book by Christopher M. Graney is the first complete English translation of an astronomical text written by scientists who stood opposite Galileo in the debate on the question of Earth’s motion. Galileo painted a very unfavorable portrait of Mathematical Disquisitions and its Jesuit authors, but the book itself turns out to be a competent scientific work and not much like Galileo’s portrayal of it. From the publisher, the University of Notre Dame Press: Mathematical Disquisitions: The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo offers a new English translation of the 1614 Disquisitiones Mathematicae, which Johann Georg Locher wrote under the guidance of the German Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. The booklet, an anti-Copernican astronomical work, is of interest in large part because Galileo Galilei, who came into conflict with Scheiner over the discovery of sunspots, devoted numerous pages within his famous 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican to ridiculing Disquisitiones. The brief text (the … Continue reading →
November Nights Promise Wonders in the Sky!
Article (blog post) 800 words Level: all audiences Fr. James Kurzynski writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about being a diocesan priest and an amateur astronomer, and notes some of the night sky objects he finds most appealing to observe: What will you being doing this November? For me, November always provides a wonderful month to stargaze. The crisp fall evenings of western Wisconsin combined with low humidity provide a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the heavens…. There is a simple joy of looking up at the night sky at the same time every evening to see how much the moon and planets move in relation to each other and the surrounding stars…. As a Diocesan Priest, late night observation is getting harder as my work responsibilities increase and my exhaustion calls me to bed earlier and earlier. I always appreciate the opportunity to observe some fun early morning objects to feed my love of astronomy. Similar to observing the nightly movements of … Continue reading →
On Being with Krista Tippett: Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God
Audio One hour Level: all audiences An interview with two Vatican Observatory astronomers from the radio show On Being with Krista Tippett: “Guy Consolmagno and George Coyne—Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God”. More than 30 objects on the moon are named after the Jesuits who mapped it. A Jesuit was one of the founders of modern astrophysics. And four Jesuits in history, including Ignatius of Loyola, have had asteroids named after them – Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father George Coyne being the two living men with this distinction. In a conversation filled with friendship and laughter, and in honor of the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S., we experience the spacious way they think about science, the universe, and the love of God. Click here for the audio and a transcript of the interview from “On Being”.
Continue reading →On Stellar Spectrometry
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 →
On the prudence and openness in interpreting sacred Scripture, when biblical passages deal with our knowledge of nature
Book excerpt 750 words Level: high school and above An excerpt on the book of Genesis, from Augustine of Hippo’s The Literal Meaning of Genesis. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: These passages from St. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram suggest how theologians should behave when different interpretations of sacred Scripture are possible in matter of our knowledge of nature. Prudence is recommended to avoid presenting specific readings, susceptible of further deepening, as if they were absolute and unquestionable. In so doing we keep away from the risk that scholars who are experts in natural knowledge deride Christians for their ingenuousness, and then underestimate the value of the whole Scripture. Galileo Galilei quoted these passages from Augustine in his famous Letter to Madame Christine of Lorraine … Continue reading →
Progress on Mount Graham
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 →
Putting faith in the universe
An interview with Guy Consolmagno about his life as a Vatican astronomer.
Continue reading →Questions and Answers with Fr. William Stoeger of the Vatican Observatory
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 →Religion and Science: Roman Catholicism
Encyclopedia article 6 pages Level: high school and above An article entitled “Christianity, Roman Catholic, Issues in Science and Religion” in the Encyclopedia Of Science And Religion. This article was written by Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006). Coyne writes: The most distinctive features of Roman Catholicism that influence the religion-science dialogue are its hierarchical and authoritative structure and its emphasis upon the rational foundations for religious belief. Many of the divisions that have occurred within Christianity in the course of history have their origins in one or both of these characteristics of Roman Catholicism. The history of the interaction within Roman Catholicism between science and religion has been dominated by its hierarchical structure. On the other hand the insistence on reason as fundamental to the relationship of human beings to the universe and, therefore, to the creator of the universe has played an important role in the birth of modern … Continue reading →
Science and Religion Advance Together at Pontifical Academy
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 →
Seeking the Face of God: The Lives and Discoveries of Catholic Scientists
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 →
Serving God and science
Article 2 pages Level: all audiences A 2001 article by Agustín Udías, published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Udías reflects on the Jesuit scientific tradition in astronomy and geophysics, by considering those who were also Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society (Udías counts 31 Jesuit Fellows): Abstract: The Society of Jesus has a venerable tradition of scientific observation and enquiry, as has the Royal Astronomical Society. Their paths have frequently crossed over the years and this tradition of shared enquiry continues to this day. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to access it via Astronomy & Geophysics.
Continue reading →St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving
Articles (blog posts) 1000-2000 words each Level: high school and above In this series of posts on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney examines the prevalence of the common myth that Galileo proved that Earth moves around the sun, and contrasts that myth with some of the scientifically questionable things that Galileo in his 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wrote regarding the subject of proving that Earth moves. Click here for the post ‘Punished for Proving‘ on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Omitted Data and the Tides‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Splitting the Stars‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Telescopic Evidence for Earth’s Immobility through Double Stars‘.
Continue reading →Teacher Inservice: How Would You Encourage Educators to Handle Faith and Science?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer providing an outline of topics covered in a teacher in-service day for K-9 Catholic school teachers, but appropriate at many levels.
Continue reading →Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The Church opposed to Science
Article (book chapter) 11 pages Level: high school 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 Hows of Science
Article (blog post) 700 words Level: all audiences In this post on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., discusses new scientists joining the Vatican Observatory: [A] big topic for the group was welcoming seven young astronomers to our group. They come from many countries – three from the US, plus an Italian, a Czech, a Congolese, and an Indian. They’ve studied a variety of scientific topics, from theorizing on subatomic strings to observing meteor showers, at traditional PhD programs in universities around the world. And their immediate challenge now is trying to fit the style of doing science they learned in those places to the unique circumstances of being an astronomer at the Vatican. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law
Article (2) 1900 words (total) Level: all 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 →The New Physics and the Old Metaphysics (The Nash Lecture at Campion College, University of Regina)
Video (50 minutes) or a presentation by Br Guy Consomagno on how advances in modern physics work with traditional metaphysics. God is not one force among many, to be invoked to explain evolution or the big bang, but the author of the universe that allows evolution or the big bang to occur.
Continue reading →The Pope and the Comet
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 →
The Total Solar Eclipse of July 29th, 1878
Article 13 pages Level: high school and above This article by J. M. Degni, S. J. from the 1878 American Catholic Quarterly Review provides an interesting look at a scientific article in a nineteenth-century Catholic periodical. “The Total Solar Eclipse” follows articles on the position of the Blessed Virgin in Catholic theology, Sir Thomas More, Catholic poetry, and Pope Sixtus V, among others. It features significant discussion of topics in astronomy such as spectroscopy and the work of Fr. Angelo Secchi. It also features a table of numerical data on temperature and humidity during the eclipse, and a full-page sketch of the eclipse made by Fr. Benedict Sestini. This sketch is also on the cover of the magazine. Degni concludes, “Many minor details, revealed by the spectroscope, the polariscope, and other instruments of observation, we must omit for brevity’s sake…. we must patiently await the full examination and comparison of the various observations taken on the 29th before the truth can be reached … Continue reading →
The Vatican Observatory
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences A short video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation about the history and work of the Vatican Observatory, featuring interviews with members of the Observatory and views of their telescopes in Arizona and Rome.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1901)
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 →The Vatican observatory, Castel Gandolfo: 80th anniversary celebration
Book 265 pages Level: university 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 Vatican Observatory: In The Service of Nine Popes
Book (link to publisher) 429 pages Level: high school and above This book, written in Italian by Sabino Maffeo, S. J. and translated by George V. Coyne, S. J. (both of the Vatican Observatory), gives the history of the founding and development of the Vatican Observatory. From the web site of the current publisher, University of Notre Dame Press: The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory’s history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory’s history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of … Continue reading →
Vatican Observatory astronomers getting research published
Article (blog post) 900 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer blog reviewing recent research activity by Vatican Observatory astronomers. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Vatican space explorations
Article 1600 words Level: all audiences A general overview of questions pertaining to space and the Vatican, from Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, 2009. Vatican space explorations Study of astronomy reminds us of the beauty of the universe — and its Creator OSV Newsweekly Why does the starlit sky hold such a profound fascination for us? Perhaps because it is there that we encounter, commingled, the mystery of light and darkness — two primal experiences connected with the beginning and end of human life. Perhaps it comes from seeing the order, both overt and occult, in the movements of the celestial spheres, with which we sense ourselves secretly involved. Perhaps it is because we feel so small before the starry universe: like a straw tossed into the ‘great sea of being,’ we feel ourselves confronted with destiny…” So begins Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo in his introduction to the new book “The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican” (Our Sunday Visitor, $39.95), which celebrates the … Continue reading →
Who Discovered the Expanding Universe
Article 22 pages Level: university 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 →
A Critique to Astrology from “De Civitate Dei”
Book excerpt 4500 words Level: high school and above An excerpt from Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God concerning the topic of astrology. Augustine uses the issues of twins to criticize astrology from a practical standpoint, but he also attacks astrology from a theological standpoint. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from Inters.org. Click here for Augustine’s critique, from The City of God (book V), from the full text available via Google Books.
Continue reading →Across the Universe: Christmas Presence
Article (blog post) 700 words Level: all audiences Vatican observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., writes (in a post for The Catholic Astronomer blog) about both the Book of Job and about how he finds doing science to be like playing a game with God : What’s it like, I am sometimes asked, to be both a Jesuit brother and an astronomer? I can compare it most easily to another memory from my childhood. I can recall a rainy summer afternoon, in our cottage by Lake Huron, spent playing cards with my mother. I couldn’t have been more than nine or ten years old, and I have never been much of a card player, but that wasn’t the point. It was a way for her to spend time with me, a young boy who would squirm at any overt sign of affection, a way of showing me that I was loved…. So how is that like being a Jesuit scientist? Because I feel that … Continue reading →
Across the Universe: Happy Birthday to Us
Article (blog post) 600 words Level: all audiences Vatican Observatory Director Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J. writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about the 125th birthday of the Vatican Observatory, and the history that lead to its foundation by Pope Leo XIII. Reflecting on that history, Br. Consolmagno writes: But our cosmological ideas moved from Copernicus’ fixed sun, through Kepler’s elliptical orbits, to Kant’s idea of galaxies as island universes and Herschel’s measurement of our place in the Milky Way. Our modern speculations about multiple universes carry as much a tinge of science fiction as of natural philosophy. One lesson I hope we’ve learned is that no modern cosmology is a good basis for theological doctrine, simply because no matter how well founded our astronomy is we can expect it will eventually go out of date. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Across the Universe: View from afar
Article (blog post) 750 words Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, writes in a post on The Catholic Astronomer blog about using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT to study small bodies in the outer solar system:. By how often they brighten and dim, we measure how fast these bodies spin; by how much their brightness changes during these cycles, we get a measure of their irregular shapes. It is not particularly thrilling work. We point the telescope at a given object; take a three-minute exposure with our electronic camera; and then another exposure; and another; and another… These objects typically take about eight hours or more per spin; so we observe one body per night as it rises, crosses the sky, and sets in the west… checking the images for clarity, tweaking the focus, watching the skies to make sure that clouds are not moving in…. Click here to read the full … Continue reading →
Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →Approaching “Would you baptize an alien?” from the perspective of a Jesuit astronomer
Article (PDF) 5300 words Level: all audiences In November 1995, Fr. Christopher Corbally, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, presented the annual Nash lecture at Campion College. This is the published text of the lecture. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Are we from the stars?
A post by Brenda Frye on the Catholic Astronomer website, noting the fact that all the elements in our bodies (and on our planet) originated in stars.
Continue reading →Astronomy and Belief (Why does the Vatican have an observatory?)
Article 2000 words Level: all audiences An article by Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, addressing the question of why the Vatican has an observatory. This was originally published at ThinkingFaith.org, the online journal of the Jesuits in Britain. Astronomy and Belief ‘Why does the Vatican have an observatory? Aren’t there more important things to do than look at the stars?’ Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno SJ has been asked these questions many times; indeed, he asks them of himself. At an event hosted by the Mount Street Jesuit Centre last month, he explained how he encounters God in his scientific studies. I once caused a stir in a church in Hawaii by announcing that I was ‘an observer from the Vatican.’ Indeed, I am. As it happens, I was in Hawaii to use the telescopes there, just as I also observe with the Vatican’s own telescope in Arizona. That is my job with the Vatican Observatory. Why … Continue reading →
Astronomy and the Catholic Church – Stanley L. Jaki
Article (encyclopedia entry) 4 pages Level: high school and above An article by Fr. Stanley L. Jaki for History of Astronomy: An Encyclopedia edited by John Lankford and published in 1996 by Routledge. Routledge describes the book as an encyclopedia that “traces the history of the oldest science from the ancient world to the space age in over 300 entries by leading experts”. Click here for a preview of this article, courtesy of Google Books. Click here for further information from the publisher.
Continue reading →Astronomy on the Frontier
Article (blog post) 1200 words Level: all audiences Christopher Graney writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about the first bishop of Vincennes, Indiana, Simon Guillaume Gabriel Bruté de Rémur (1779-1839), and his library. The library contained a significant collection of works on science, which Bishop Bruté hauled all the way to the American frontier from France. Graney writes: It turns out Bruté had been a top-notch student of science—one of the best students in his class at the medical school in Paris. So of course his library would include quite a bit of material on a variety of sciences, including astronomy. Still, Indiana was being settled at the time, and was pretty rough country: the land of Abraham Lincoln’s youth…; a land that had only become a state twenty years earlier; a land from which the Potowatami Indians were being forcibly evicted while Bruté was bishop, passing only a hundred miles to the north on a “Trail of Death.” Was it really worth … Continue reading →
Astronomy, God, and the Search for Elegance
Article 2800 words Level: all audiences Do faith and science operate in completely separate, non-overlapping realms? In the first of a series of articles for Thinking Faith, Vatican Astronomer Guy Consolmagno, S. J., explores how science works, how scientists work, and the place that faith has in science – simply because scientists are people. Click here to view the original article on Thinking Faith. [Click here to download PDF]
Continue reading →Catholic Women of Science: Embracing Pope Francis’ call to elevate the dignity and role of women.
A post by Fr. James Kurzinski on the Catholic Astronomer website. “A woman of great influence who is often identified as a Catholic woman of science is Saint Hildegard von Bingen, Doctor of the Church, who lived in the 11th and 12th centuries. Saint Hildegard was identified as a polymath, meaning someone who has a broad spectrum of intellectual expertise, displaying brilliance in many fields of study.”
Continue reading →Ciencia y fe: el origen del universo. Georges Lemaître: el padre del big-bang
Article 3000 words Level: high school 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 →
Couldn’t God have designed a gentler universe?
- Article
- 2200 words
- General audience
This article on natural evil is taken from the Jesuit web site Thinking Faith; it originally appeared in the magazine The Tablet
Continue reading →Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT
Article 150 words Level: all audiences Below is the text of a “News Notes” article from Sky & Telescope Magazine, July 1995, announcing the first use 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. Deep-dish astronomy: First light for VATT Observing is now under way at the new Mount Graham International Observatory in Arizona. At the end of January, Richard P. Boyle, S.J. (Vatican Observatory) and Austin B. Tomaney (Columbia University) took the first visible-light images with the 1.8-meter Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT). First among the $3-million instrument’s noteworthy attributes is its deep, “salad-bowl” f/1.0 primary mirror (S&T: March 1994, page 12). It was one of the first to be formed by spin-casting techniques developed at the University of Arizona. Such a fast primary requires the secondary to be positioned with micron precision to achieve proper focus. These inaugural images of the Crab Nebula in Taurus … Continue reading →
Faith in Space: Will A Priest Ever Visit The International Space Station?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer, who concludes, as humanity explores space, let’s never be afraid to insist that every part of humanity be brought to space, developing a deeper appreciation of what this exploration means and how we can appreciate God’s creation anew from a new vantage point through new eyes.
Continue reading →Finding God in the Cosmos: An Interview with a Vatican Astronomer
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 →
Francis – Address to Participants in the Summer Course of the Vatican Observatory
Article (Papal Address) 560 words Level: all audiences In 2014 Pope Francis addressed the participants in the Vatican Observatory’s summer school. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Pope Francis notes: Here too we see a further reason for the Church’s commitment to dialogue with the sciences on the basis of the light provided by faith: it is her conviction that faith is capable of both expanding and enriching the horizons of reason. In this dialogue, the Church rejoices in the marvelous progress of science, seeing it as a sign of the enormous God-given potential of the human mind, even as a mother rejoices and is rightly proud as her children grow “in wisdom, and age and grace” (Lk 2:52). Click here for this material from Inters.org. Click here for … Continue reading →
God Is Also a Cosmologist
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.
Continue reading →Is the Tension Between Faith and Science ‘Merely’ a Breakdown in Communication?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer. “Can the perceived tension between evolution and God as Creator be fully addressed by clarifying a breakdown in communication over the word “random?” Of course, the answer is no. As is the case with many strained relationships, there isn’t just one issue that leads to a breakup. Nevertheless, I do feel that these explorations are needed for both believer and non-believer if we are to move away from faith and science as adversaries and toward a position of faith and science as dialogue partners in search of truth.”
Continue reading →Jesuit Astronomers in Beijing 1601-1805
Article 16 pages Level: university This 1994 article by Agustín Udías in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society provides an overview of two hundred years of astronomical and Jesuit history in China: Abstract: Jesuit astronomers worked in Beijing for almost 200 years from 1601 to 1805 and occupied posts as directors of the Astronomical Observatory and presidents of the Board of Astronomy. During this time, they carried out an unprecedented transfer of scientific knowledge between Europe and China, especially in the fields of astronomy and mathematics. They took advantage of the need to reform the calendar to introduce western astronomy to China. They built astronomical instruments, brought European astronomical tables and made an extensive programme of observations. The work, in particular, of Ricci, Schall, Verbiest, Kogler and Hallerstein highlights this story. Click here to access this article from NASA ADS. Click here to download a PDF of this article from NASA ADS.
Continue reading →Jesuit Astronomy (1904) – William F. Rigge, S.J.
Article (in three parts) 30 pages (total) Level: all audiences “Jesuit Astronomy”, written John Schreiber, S. J., and by the Creighton University astronomer William F. Rigge, S. J., was published in the magazine Popular Astronomy in 1904. It a broad overview of Jesuit activities in the field of astronomy, from founding of the order in 1540 through the end of the nineteenth century. Click here for the article, Part I, 1st section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part I, 2nd section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 1st section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 2nd section, courtesy of Google Books. Click here to access this section via NASA ADS. Click here for the article, Part II, 3rd section, courtesy of Google Books. … Continue reading →
Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
Mapping with the stars: Nuns instrumental in Vatican celestial survey
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 →November Nights Promise Wonders in the Sky!
Article (blog post) 800 words Level: all audiences Fr. James Kurzynski writes on The Catholic Astronomer blog about being a diocesan priest and an amateur astronomer, and notes some of the night sky objects he finds most appealing to observe: What will you being doing this November? For me, November always provides a wonderful month to stargaze. The crisp fall evenings of western Wisconsin combined with low humidity provide a wonderful opportunity to appreciate the heavens…. There is a simple joy of looking up at the night sky at the same time every evening to see how much the moon and planets move in relation to each other and the surrounding stars…. As a Diocesan Priest, late night observation is getting harder as my work responsibilities increase and my exhaustion calls me to bed earlier and earlier. I always appreciate the opportunity to observe some fun early morning objects to feed my love of astronomy. Similar to observing the nightly movements of … Continue reading →
On the prudence and openness in interpreting sacred Scripture, when biblical passages deal with our knowledge of nature
Book excerpt 750 words Level: high school and above An excerpt on the book of Genesis, from Augustine of Hippo’s The Literal Meaning of Genesis. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. From Inters.org: These passages from St. Augustine’s De Genesi ad litteram suggest how theologians should behave when different interpretations of sacred Scripture are possible in matter of our knowledge of nature. Prudence is recommended to avoid presenting specific readings, susceptible of further deepening, as if they were absolute and unquestionable. In so doing we keep away from the risk that scholars who are experts in natural knowledge deride Christians for their ingenuousness, and then underestimate the value of the whole Scripture. Galileo Galilei quoted these passages from Augustine in his famous Letter to Madame Christine of Lorraine … Continue reading →
Progress on Mount Graham
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 →
Putting faith in the universe
An interview with Guy Consolmagno about his life as a Vatican astronomer.
Continue reading →Religion and Science: Roman Catholicism
Encyclopedia article 6 pages Level: high school and above An article entitled “Christianity, Roman Catholic, Issues in Science and Religion” in the Encyclopedia Of Science And Religion. This article was written by Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006). Coyne writes: The most distinctive features of Roman Catholicism that influence the religion-science dialogue are its hierarchical and authoritative structure and its emphasis upon the rational foundations for religious belief. Many of the divisions that have occurred within Christianity in the course of history have their origins in one or both of these characteristics of Roman Catholicism. The history of the interaction within Roman Catholicism between science and religion has been dominated by its hierarchical structure. On the other hand the insistence on reason as fundamental to the relationship of human beings to the universe and, therefore, to the creator of the universe has played an important role in the birth of modern … Continue reading →
Science and Religion Advance Together at Pontifical Academy
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 →
Serving God and science
Article 2 pages Level: all audiences A 2001 article by Agustín Udías, published in the journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Udías reflects on the Jesuit scientific tradition in astronomy and geophysics, by considering those who were also Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society (Udías counts 31 Jesuit Fellows): Abstract: The Society of Jesus has a venerable tradition of scientific observation and enquiry, as has the Royal Astronomical Society. Their paths have frequently crossed over the years and this tradition of shared enquiry continues to this day. Click here to access this article via NASA ADS. Click here to access it via Astronomy & Geophysics.
Continue reading →St. Athanasius – The Harmony of the Universe: the Work of the Logos, Who Acts as a Musician
Book excerpt 1300 words Level: university An excerpt from Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes), by Athanasius of Alexandria. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Athanasius writes: [B]y one and the same act of will He moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous and truly divine … Continue reading →
St. Thomas Aquinas – The Knowledge of the Creatures is Useful to Avoid Errors Concerning God
Book excerpt 1400 words Level: university In this Summa contra Gentiles discussion on created things (that is, on the creatures or the works of God), Thomas Aquinas comments on the value for Faith inherent in understanding these things. This excerpt has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. St. Thomas gives a number of reasons for studying the works of God: First, because meditation on His works enables us in some measure to admire and reflect upon His wisdom…. Secondly, this consideration [of God’s works] leads to admiration of God’s sublime power, and consequently inspires in men’s hearts reverence for God…. Thirdly, this consideration incites the souls of men to the love of God’s goodness…. Fourthly, this consideration endows men with a certain likeness to God’s perfection…. It is therefore evident that the consideration … Continue reading →
Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving
Articles (blog posts) 1000-2000 words each Level: high school and above In this series of posts on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Christopher Graney examines the prevalence of the common myth that Galileo proved that Earth moves around the sun, and contrasts that myth with some of the scientifically questionable things that Galileo in his 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems wrote regarding the subject of proving that Earth moves. Click here for the post ‘Punished for Proving‘ on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Omitted Data and the Tides‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Splitting the Stars‘. Click here for the post ‘Strange Tales of Galileo and Proving: Telescopic Evidence for Earth’s Immobility through Double Stars‘.
Continue reading →Teacher Inservice: How Would You Encourage Educators to Handle Faith and Science?
A post by Fr. James Kurzynski on The Catholic Astronomer providing an outline of topics covered in a teacher in-service day for K-9 Catholic school teachers, but appropriate at many levels.
Continue reading →The Church opposed to Science
Article (book chapter) 11 pages Level: high school 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 Hows of Science
Article (blog post) 700 words Level: all audiences In this post on The Catholic Astronomer blog, Vatican Observatory astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., discusses new scientists joining the Vatican Observatory: [A] big topic for the group was welcoming seven young astronomers to our group. They come from many countries – three from the US, plus an Italian, a Czech, a Congolese, and an Indian. They’ve studied a variety of scientific topics, from theorizing on subatomic strings to observing meteor showers, at traditional PhD programs in universities around the world. And their immediate challenge now is trying to fit the style of doing science they learned in those places to the unique circumstances of being an astronomer at the Vatican. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →The International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the Hubble–Lemaître law
Article (2) 1900 words (total) Level: all 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 →The Pope and the Comet
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 →
The Total Solar Eclipse of July 29th, 1878
Article 13 pages Level: high school and above This article by J. M. Degni, S. J. from the 1878 American Catholic Quarterly Review provides an interesting look at a scientific article in a nineteenth-century Catholic periodical. “The Total Solar Eclipse” follows articles on the position of the Blessed Virgin in Catholic theology, Sir Thomas More, Catholic poetry, and Pope Sixtus V, among others. It features significant discussion of topics in astronomy such as spectroscopy and the work of Fr. Angelo Secchi. It also features a table of numerical data on temperature and humidity during the eclipse, and a full-page sketch of the eclipse made by Fr. Benedict Sestini. This sketch is also on the cover of the magazine. Degni concludes, “Many minor details, revealed by the spectroscope, the polariscope, and other instruments of observation, we must omit for brevity’s sake…. we must patiently await the full examination and comparison of the various observations taken on the 29th before the truth can be reached … Continue reading →
The Vatican Observatory (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1901)
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 →Vatican Observatory astronomers getting research published
Article (blog post) 900 words Level: all audiences A post on The Catholic Astronomer blog reviewing recent research activity by Vatican Observatory astronomers. Click here to read the full article on The Catholic Astronomer – the blog of the Vatican Observatory Foundation.
Continue reading →Vatican space explorations
Article 1600 words Level: all audiences A general overview of questions pertaining to space and the Vatican, from Our Sunday Visitor Newsweekly, 2009. Vatican space explorations Study of astronomy reminds us of the beauty of the universe — and its Creator OSV Newsweekly Why does the starlit sky hold such a profound fascination for us? Perhaps because it is there that we encounter, commingled, the mystery of light and darkness — two primal experiences connected with the beginning and end of human life. Perhaps it comes from seeing the order, both overt and occult, in the movements of the celestial spheres, with which we sense ourselves secretly involved. Perhaps it is because we feel so small before the starry universe: like a straw tossed into the ‘great sea of being,’ we feel ourselves confronted with destiny…” So begins Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo in his introduction to the new book “The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican” (Our Sunday Visitor, $39.95), which celebrates the … Continue reading →
Who Discovered the Expanding Universe
Article 22 pages Level: university 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 →
Adventures of a Vatican Astronomer – Br. Guy Consolmagno SJ
Video One hour Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, gave this talk at the SETI Institute on February 22, 2013 No scientist is a Spock-like android; a scientist’s work is as intuitive, and just as full of human foibles, as a painting, a symphony, or a prayer. But most of us don’t have the opportunity (or training) to reflect on the human dimensions of our work. Br. Guy Consolmagno does; he is both a Jesuit brother and a planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, splitting his time between the meteorite collection in Rome (which he curates) and the Vatican telescope in Arizona. Thanks to his Vatican connections, his work has sent him around the world several times to dozens of countries and every continent (including a meteorite hunting expedition to Antarctica). In this talk he will share some of those adventures, and reflect on the larger meaning of our common experience as … Continue reading →
Fr. Angelo Secchi S.J., Jesuit Astrophysicist
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 →From MIT to Specola Vaticana: Guy Consolmagno at TEDx via Della Conciliazione
Video 17 minutes Level: all audiences Brother Guy Consolmagno weaves stories about science and seeing things in new ways. From TEDx YouTube: Brother Guy Consolmagno is a Planetary Scientist at the Vatican Observatory. He is the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, which is one of the largest in the world. He earned a degree from MIT and did post-doctorate work at MIT and the Harvard College Observatory. When he was 29, he joined the Peace Corps in Kenya. There, he taught suffering people about astronomy. He discovered that the desire for scientific knowledge is not limited to educated westerners, but is original and alive in the poor and uneducated. In this way, he discovered that astronomy belongs to us all. In 1992, he became a Jesuit Brother. In 2000, he was honored by the International Astronomical Union for his contributions to the study of meteorites and asteroids with the naming of “Asteroid 4597 Consolmagno”.
Continue reading →Jesuit Science
Article and Video 750 words (article), 1 hour (video) Level: all audiences Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory, discusses Jesuits and their many contributions to science in an article and in a talk (on video). Br. Consolmagno notes: A Jesuit scientist, supported by the order, is often not tied to a three-year funding cycle or six-year tenure review. Thus we have the time – it may take decades – to catalogue double stars, seismic velocities, or patterns in climate or terrestrial magnetic fields. Jesuits, for instance, invented the basic taxonomy of the plants of India. But this sort of science often meant that their work was unappreciated by their immediate peers. Famously in the 19th century the Whig historian and politician Thomas Macaulay sneered that the Jesuits “appear to have discovered the precise point to which intellectual culture can be carried without risk of intellectual emancipation” and that being a Jesuit “has a tendency to … Continue reading →
The New Physics and the Old Metaphysics (The Nash Lecture at Campion College, University of Regina)
Video (50 minutes) or a presentation by Br Guy Consomagno on how advances in modern physics work with traditional metaphysics. God is not one force among many, to be invoked to explain evolution or the big bang, but the author of the universe that allows evolution or the big bang to occur.
Continue reading →The Vatican Observatory
Video 5 minutes Level: all audiences A short video from the Vatican Observatory Foundation about the history and work of the Vatican Observatory, featuring interviews with members of the Observatory and views of their telescopes in Arizona and Rome.
Continue reading →IHMC STEM Talk, Conversation with Br Consolmagno
Audio One hour Level: all audiences STEM Talk is podcast produced by the IHMC (a not-for-profit research institute of the Florida University System) that features “Conversations with some of the most interesting people in the world of science and technology”. In this episode, co-host Tom Jones interviews Br. Guy Consolmagno, S. J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, about his life-long journey to understand the universe and the role of faith in that pursuit. Jones is a former NASA astronaut who shares Br. Guy’s love of astronomy and who also studies under the same thesis advisor at MIT, John Lewis. Click here to access the audio and a summary of the topics discussed from IHMC.
Continue reading →On Being with Krista Tippett: Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God
Audio One hour Level: all audiences An interview with two Vatican Observatory astronomers from the radio show On Being with Krista Tippett: “Guy Consolmagno and George Coyne—Asteroids, Stars, and the Love of God”. More than 30 objects on the moon are named after the Jesuits who mapped it. A Jesuit was one of the founders of modern astrophysics. And four Jesuits in history, including Ignatius of Loyola, have had asteroids named after them – Brother Guy Consolmagno and Father George Coyne being the two living men with this distinction. In a conversation filled with friendship and laughter, and in honor of the visit of Pope Francis to the U.S., we experience the spacious way they think about science, the universe, and the love of God. Click here for the audio and a transcript of the interview from “On Being”.
Continue reading →Seeking the Face of God: The Lives and Discoveries of Catholic Scientists
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 →
Anatomy of a fall: Giovanni Battista Riccioli and the story of g
Article (PDF) 5 pages Level: high school and up The first person to conduct precise gravity experiments was Fr. Giovanni Battista Riccioli, S. J. in the early seventeenth century. This 2012 article from the magazine Physics Today discusses Fr. Riccioli’s experiments regarding how gravity works and what was the acceleration due to gravity (now known as ‘g’). Click here for a the article in PDF format (from Physics Today). From the article: Riccioli set a fine example for all the free-fall experiments that would follow. He was thorough. He provided an extensive description of his experimental procedure. He gathered data of sufficient quality to assess accurately the model in question. But Riccioli’s work is also a standard of scientific integrity: He had set out expecting to disprove Galileo, but even when his experiments vindicated Galileo, he made a point of promptly sharing the news with an interested colleague. His attitude, like his experiment, was that of a fine scientist.
Continue reading →The Pope and the Comet
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 →
Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion
Book 320 pages Level: high school and above This 2009 book, edited by Ronald Numbers, contains much that will be of interest to many readers. From the publisher, Harvard University Press: If we want nonscientists and opinion-makers in the press, the lab, and the pulpit to take a fresh look at the relationship between science and religion, Ronald L. Numbers suggests that we must first dispense with the hoary myths that have masqueraded too long as historical truths. Until about the 1970s, the dominant narrative in the history of science had long been that of science triumphant, and science at war with religion. But a new generation of historians both of science and of the church began to examine episodes in the history of science and religion through the values and knowledge of the actors themselves. Now Ronald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed … Continue reading →
Mathematical Disquisitions – The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo
Book 176 pages Level: high school and above This 2017 book by Christopher M. Graney is the first complete English translation of an astronomical text written by scientists who stood opposite Galileo in the debate on the question of Earth’s motion. Galileo painted a very unfavorable portrait of Mathematical Disquisitions and its Jesuit authors, but the book itself turns out to be a competent scientific work and not much like Galileo’s portrayal of it. From the publisher, the University of Notre Dame Press: Mathematical Disquisitions: The Booklet of Theses Immortalized by Galileo offers a new English translation of the 1614 Disquisitiones Mathematicae, which Johann Georg Locher wrote under the guidance of the German Jesuit astronomer Christoph Scheiner. The booklet, an anti-Copernican astronomical work, is of interest in large part because Galileo Galilei, who came into conflict with Scheiner over the discovery of sunspots, devoted numerous pages within his famous 1632 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems—Ptolemaic and Copernican to ridiculing Disquisitiones. The brief text (the … Continue reading →
Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass
Book 234 pages Level: all audiences This book by Marvin Bolt was published in 2009, the year of the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s use of the telescope. It provides a readable history of the telescope by way of highlighting items that are on exhibit in the “Telescopes: Through the Looking Glass” exhibit at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. Scattered throughout this beautifully illustrated book can be found references to the works of various clerics, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus (1203-1274), Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688), Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729), and others. Those planning a visit to the Adler might enjoy a look through this book in advance. From the publisher, Adler Planetarium: Through the Looking Glass celebrates the 400th anniversary of the telescope and the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. This exhibition catalogue focuses on ninety-nine artifacts from the Adler Planetarium’s world-class collection of historic telescopes. From the simple lenses of the world’s earliest telescopes 400 years ago to the complex computer-driven mirrors of … Continue reading →
The Church opposed to Science
Article (book chapter) 11 pages Level: high school 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 Vatican observatory, Castel Gandolfo: 80th anniversary celebration
Book 265 pages Level: university 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 Vatican Observatory: In The Service of Nine Popes
Book (link to publisher) 429 pages Level: high school and above This book, written in Italian by Sabino Maffeo, S. J. and translated by George V. Coyne, S. J. (both of the Vatican Observatory), gives the history of the founding and development of the Vatican Observatory. From the web site of the current publisher, University of Notre Dame Press: The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of Nine Popes records the history of the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana). It was originally published in 1991 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the observatory by Pope Leo XIII. This revised edition brings together many facts hidden in archival material, correspondence, previous publications on the observatory’s history, as well as fresh material derived from interviews. Of particular interest is new research on the difficult period in the observatory’s history as it moved from an institute struggling to establish research programs to a true astronomical observatory. The Vatican Observatory: In the Service of … Continue reading →