The Vatican Observatory and the World
Along with scientific research, the Vatican Observatory has undertaken a number of projects and programs both within the world of astronomy and in the larger realm of faith and science. Some of their recent projects are illustrated here, around the motto given us in 1935 by Pope Pius XI: Venite Adoremus Deum Creatorem (Come, let us adore God the Creator):
(Clockwise from upper left)
1. In 2017, the Vatican Observatory sponsored a workshop on Black Holes, Gravitational Waves and Spacetime Singularities with a number of experts from around the world; here, Fr. Gabriele Gionti is introducing Nobel Laureate Gerald ’t Hooft to Pope Francis
2. One of the major programs of the Observatory since 1986 has been the biennial Vatican Observatory Summer Schools (VOSS), where 25 young scholars from around the world spend the month of June in Castel Gandolfo, in an intense study of some timely aspect of astrophysics with a number of renowned scholars.
3. In 2018, Br. Robert Macke SJ hosted the premier meteorite curators of the world, including curators of the Japanese and American Antarctic collections, the British Natural History Museum, and the Apollo samples at the NASA Johnson Center in Houston.
4. Over the years, members of the Observatory have published a number of books in the topics both astronomy and the relation between faith and science.
5. In 2015, Fr. José Funes hosted a group of scholars from Iran to discuss the role of astronomy in Christianity and Islam, sponsored by the Vatican and the Iranian embassy to the Holy See.
6. In Tucson, the members of the Vatican Observatory have joined with the Vatican Observatory Foundation to run the week-long workshop in Astronomy for Catholics in Ministry and Education at the Redemptorist Renewal Center north of Tucson.
7. The alumni of our summer schools meet roughly every ten years to compare notes, share stories, and hear the latest news from each other. The 2019 “SuperVOSS” featured Dr. Heino Falke, whose Event Horizon Telescope team heard that they had been awarded the $3,000,000 Breakthrough Prize for their first ever image of a supermassive black hole in the galaxy M 87.
8. In the 1990s, at the suggestion of Pope John Paul II, the Vatican Observatory and the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, California, sponsored a series of workshops on the topic of God’s Action in the Universe, which produced a notable series of scholarly proceeding volumes.