This summer, Pope Leo XIV paid a visit to the historic telescopes of the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. It is interesting to closely watch the video of his visit. He was not just sightseeing. He was there to look through some telescopes!
Jesuit Father David Brown, a Vatican Observatory astronomer, showed the pope around. The first telescope Father Brown showed to Pope Leo was a photographic instrument, not suitable for looking through. But the second telescope was suitable, and you can see in the video that the pope is the first one through the door for that scope.
Once in, Pope Leo gestures and mentions “the crescent moon.” He wants to look at the moon. You can see his interest in his expression.
This visit was during the daytime. The thing is, while the moon was visible at the time, it can be hard to see a crescent moon at that position relative to the sun. Not everyone notices a crescent moon in the daytime.
But Pope Leo did. He must have had some idea that the moon was there and visible, even before he headed up to the observatory, and knew to look for it. He was at the telescopes hoping to use them to see the moon, I think.
Father Brown was quoted in the Vatican’s newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, as saying that, “the Holy Father showed genuine interest, wanting to know the history and functioning of the telescope we were preparing to use and whether the images of the celestial bodies observed were upside down.”
Pope Leo majored in math when he was in college. It seems to me that, while he might have been a math major, he also has some interest in astronomy. I’ve seen many people at telescopes and can tell who has real interest.
Would it surprise you to know that the same Father Brown who guided the pope’s use of one of the Vatican telescopes was here in Louisville just this year? He was here in March for the “St. Albert Initiative” for science at Bellarmine University that drew about 450 people. Perhaps he talked to a high school student that you know.
It is actually not that surprising. The Archdiocese of Louisville is becoming something of a Catholicism and science thought center. This archdiocese has had a Faith and Science Dialogue Group since 2017.
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We are about to celebrate our fifth Gold Mass for science. It will be at 10 a.m. on Nov. 15 at St. Albert the Great Church.
After the Gold Mass, there will be a talk and reception. The subject of the talk will be the new Faith and Science Resource Book that the group has produced for all archdiocesan educators: priests, teachers and parents.
Members of the group found that people had the same faith and science questions over and over. However, we lacked a simple resource to help people with those questions. So, we made one.
You are reading this column (another thing unique to this archdiocese), so you have some interest in faith and science. You are invited to the events of Nov. 15, the feast day of St. Albert, patron saint of scientists.
You can find the new Faith and Science Resource Book at: www.archlou.org/faith-and-science/ (free in electronic form). Or, call the archdiocesan Office of Faith Formation at 636-0296.
Chris Graney is an astronomer and historian of science with the Vatican Observatory and a member of the Faith and Science Dialogue Group.
