Tucson Region

Vatican sees stars

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy - The pope's summer palace here was shuttered and chained until this week in observance of John Paul II's death, but on the fifth floor of the 17th century castle, work has continued uninterrupted as a group of scientist priests with ties to Tucson studies the universe. The Vatican Observatory, operated by 12 Jesuit priests, was founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII. For the past 11 years, it has operated the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope - VATT - on Mount Graham, about 80 miles northeast of Tucson. The observatory's director, the Rev. George V. Coyne, says he's confident Pope Benedict XVI will not change the function of the center, which mainly researches star and planet formation and conducts all its research observing at Mount Graham because of light pollution in the greater Rome area. Castel Gandolfo is just outside Rome, overlooking Lake Albano. Though mixing his Roman Catholic faith and scientific research didn't work well for Galileo, astronomers who work at the Vatican Observatory stress that the world has changed. Their work is a unique way for Catholicism and science to coexist, they say. At the entrance to the Vatican's Mount Graham telescope is an inscription in Latin and English that speaks to that balance of disciplines: "May whoever searches here night and day the far reaches of space use it joyfully with the help of God." The observatory also fits the aim of the late Pope John Paul II to involve the Roman Catholic Church in the world as a whole, not just the world of Catholicism, said the Rev. Richard P. Boyle, who like the other Jesuit astronomers splits his year between Tucson and Castel Gandolfo. The group owns a house on Lee Street, near the University of Arizona. The observatory also is in keeping with the Jesuit order's long history of seeking knowledge, Boyle said, noting that one of the detail men on the Gregorian calendar, named for Pope Gregory XIII, was a Jesuit priest named Christopher Clavius. "It began in 1543, when Ignatius Loyola became involved in astronomy," Boyle said. "Each religious order has a different emphasis. Ignatius Loyola started to realize that if he really believed in the Gospel, if he wanted to talk about knowledge - biblical or not - he needed more education." The observatory's multimillion-dollar budget is funded both by the Vatican and, increasingly, by private donations through the Vatican Observatory Foundation. And while the number of priests in North America and Europe has been declining, the Vatican Observatory reports an increase in the number of men interested in being Jesuit astronomers. "It's not a dying endeavor. It's expanding and we are happy to see that," Boyle said. "There are three young Jesuits who are preparing themselves to come to Castel Gandolfo - one is African, another is Italian and another one is from the Czech Republic," said the Rev. Sabino Maffeo. Maffeo is assistant to the director at the observatory and lives at Castel Gandolfo, where the Vatican keeps five telescopes. Maffeo has a photo from 1925 that shows two observatory domes behind St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 1935, the domes were moved to Castel Gandolfo because of light pollution that by 1985 also made it impossible to effectively conduct research observation at the papal palace. Not all the astronomers who work at the Vatican Observatory are priests, or even Catholic. Vilppu Piirola, one of the senior research associates, for example, is a Lutheran from Finland. "My faith did not matter to them when they hired me," he said. "The Catholic Church sees the universe as a creation of God but also sees that our research is helping our understanding of life and creation." And the priests say they find no conflict between Catholic theology and hard science. "If it comes down to the argument of Genesis versus creation - Genesis is a mythical story in a very positive sense of the word," Boyle said. "It's not scientific in the way that a scientist publishes work. The Bible is a story. Conflicts come out of misuse of knowledge." Indeed, scientific research is the best way to spark dialogue about philosophy, faith and science, said the Rev. Alessandro Omizzolo, a senior Vatican Observatory astronomer from Italy who will be observing for six nights at Mount Graham later this month. "We try to work with scientists without imposing our religious faith," Omizzolo said. "The purpose here is professional astronomy, it's not reading the Gospel or putting a cross on the wall," Boyle agreed. Inside Castel Gandolfo, the Vatican Observatory has a collection of rare books that include early editions by Copernicus and Galileo. It also has a meteorite collection and a piece of rock from the moon from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission. Although observing for research no longer is conducted at Castel Gandolfo, Maffeo said it has become a place for astronomers to work, hold conferences and teach students. One of the latest teaching tools at Castel Gandolfo has a Tucson connection - a solar telescope mounted to its Zeiss visual telescope used to observe the sun. The Coronado Solar Telescope was donated by the late David Lunt and his wife, Geraldine, who founded Tucson-based Coronado Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of solar telescopes. Maffeo and the other astronomers say Pope John Paul II was supportive of their work and visited often. They frequently saw him at the papal palace, where a terrace from the astronomy area overlooks the pope's private gardens. In a letter he wrote to Vatican Observatory director Coyne in 1988, the late pontiff wrote that the church bears "enormous responsibilities for the human condition because historically we have had and continue to have a major influence on the development of ideas and on the course of human action." The pope also wrote that the relationship of religion and science has uncovered important questions vital to the larger human community - a message the Jesuits expect will endure through future papacies. "I look into the stars and see mystery," Boyle said. "This is in the context of my faith experience. It's all in stride with Jesuit spirituality. … God is imminent, transcendent, and God is mystery."