Page 2 - Summer Solemnities - Venture

Christians have been looking at the sky for centuries. There is
so much to explore and learn that the Church even has its own observatory Name some ways Brother Guy serves the Church, located just outside Rome, is one of the world’s oldest working observatories.
Beneath the
rotating domes that
open to the sky are
four historic telescopes.
They offer detailed views of the moon and the planets. Inside the museum, visitors can study a collection of meteorites that are billions
of years old. Astronomers
are always at work here, taking measurements, doing research, teaching, observing, and working with other scientists.
“It never stops being a thrill,” says Brother Guy
A large telescope sits inside
Brother Guy says people often ask how he can be a man of science and religion at the same time. He explains that there are ways that science and faith can work together. “My faith tells me that God created the universe, a universe that is logical, beautiful, and good,” he says. “My science consists of trying to figure out how he did it!”
The Church has a long history of trying to figure out how God’s Creation works. Pope Leo XIII founded the Vatican Observatory in 1891 to help advance the scientific study of the heavens. One of the observatory’s first tasks was to join an international project to create a map of the sky. A group of religious sisters spent eleven years carefully measuring and calculating star positions by hand, without calculators or computers. This “Map of the Stars” is still used today.
Pope Leo had the original Vatican observatory built inside the walls of the Vatican in Rome. It was advanced technology at the time. But soon, another new technology began to interfere. Rome became more modernized in
This giant cloud of dust and gas in space is called a nebula. The photo was taken with a telescope at the Vatican Observatory.
Consolmagno (cone-sahl- MAN-yo) about his work as the observatory director. “I can see in the sky things that are beautiful, familiar, have a history, and that smile at me and remind me that God makes good things,” he says.
Brother Guy is a Jesuit and
a respected astronomer
who has taught at Harvard University. He is joined at the observatory by eleven other astronomers. They
are all priests and brothers. Most are Jesuits, like Brother Guy. Nicknamed the Pope’s Astronomer, Brother Guy is also sometimes referred to as the “Catholic Science Guy.”
this dome at the Vatican observatory.
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Imprimatur: +Most Reverend Robert J. McManus, S.T.D., Bishop of Worcester, August 13, 2022.
VENTURE copyright © 2023 by Pflaum Publishing Group, a division of Bayard, Inc., sponsored by the Augustinians of the Assumption. Theological Reviewer:
Reverend Michael T. Martine, S.T.B., J.C.L.; Publisher: David Dziena; Editor: Connie Clark; Designer: Jennifer Poferl. Printed in the USA. Material in this issue may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or format without special permission from the publisher. Page 1: jackienixadobephotos.com, photoplotnikovadobephotos.com; page 2: Castel Gandolfo, VATT image by Brucker, Consolmagno, Romanishin, Tegler; page 3: Marco Valentini; page 4: Marcelino Truong/Bayard; page 5: WikiCommons, Lidia_Lo/Adobephotos.com; pages 6–7: Wikimedia Commons, page 8: ipopba/adobephotos.com.
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