Gazing At The Heavens: The Vatican Observatory’s Mission To Study Faith And Science
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy — On a hilltop overlooking Lake Albano in suburban Rome is a castle that used to be the pope’s summer residence.
Located 16 miles (about 25 kilometers) from Vatican City, the building no longer houses the pope. Instead, it is exclusively used by a group of clerics who double as astronomers.
Science and faith intersect at this special place. While some may find it strange that the Vatican has an observatory, the Catholic Church has been involved with science since the Jesuit order was founded in 1540. Saint Ignatius, for example, would spend hours on his balcony gazing at the night sky.
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Over the centuries, the Jesuits have taken part in scientific discovery and philosophical exploration of the universe.
“I would say 80% of my job is to be a regular, normal scientist, which means study, publish, go for conferences, meet scientists, invite them over, talk to them about science and then use that as a tool to enter in and to talk to them about that,” said Rev. Richard D’Souza, an astronomer and superior of the Jesuit community at the Vatican Observatory.
D’Souza — along with 10 other priests — added that the other 20% of his job is “to turn inwards to the church.”
The Vatican scientists, in addition to astronomy, also study climate change — a priority of Pope Francis’ papacy.
Pope Leo XIII (Wikipedia Commons photo)
A long-standing history of studying the skies
Similar to with other religious tradition, interest in the heavens grew out of a need to set the calendar and establish dates for religious holidays. The day Easter should fall on, for example, led to the creation of the Gregorian Calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII. Used to this day, it was developed by Aloysius Lilius and modified later by Christoph Clavius at the Collegio Romano using astronomical data.
“What is the interest of astronomy and religion? It's very simple: Religion has to do with something which is transcendental,” D’Souza said. “Something which is beyond. And astronomy is a study of the heavens. Something which is also transcendental. God is a thing which is most transcendental. And astronomy is a study of the object which are transcendental. The heavens always remind us of divine or God.”
In 1774, the Vatican established the Observatory of the Roman College. After operating out of several locations, Father Angelo Secchi, a Jesuit, relocated the College Observatory to the top of the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome. In 1870, with the capture of Rome, the College Observatory fell into the hands of the Italian government. Out of respect for his work, however, Secchi was allowed to continue using the observatory.
Following Secchi’s death in 1878, the observatory was nationalized by the Italian government and renamed the Royal Observatory at the Roman College, ending — for a few years — astronomical research in the Vatican.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII declared that a new Vatican Observatory needed to be rebuilt at edge of the Vatican. The new Vatican Observatory remained there for the next 40 years. By the 1930s, the city’s lights made it difficult to conduct useful observations. As a result, Pope Pius XI relocated the Observatory to Castel Gandolfo.
By 1961, the same problems made observing difficult at Castel Gandolfo. The Observatory established an office at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
Unsplash photo
UFOs, aliens and miracles
UFOs and aliens have come to the forefront in recent years. While no recent alien sightings by service members were confirmed to be extraterrestrial life in a 2023 government report, Congress is requiring the Pentagon to look into its UFO files dating back to 1945.
For D’Souza, the biggest problem with extraterrestrial life is “for theological reflection.”
“We have no scientific evidence that there is extraterrestrial life out there,” he added. “Please note, I am using the word extraterrestrial life as a very low, large broad category, which includes fungus to bacteria to extremely intelligent beings.”
The study of extraterrestrial life, D’Souza said, includes “trying to detect signatures of life in space.”
“We’re not trying to … collect radio signals of them communicating with us, but we are looking for indirect signatures,” he said. “So what we are trying to do today is to look at what we have found in the many planets outside our solar system.”
Miracles are another matter that science can’t define but the church believes in. Miracles are an important aspect of the Catholic faith. The church teaches that miracles are a reminder of the power and glory of God. They are also used to elevate people to sainthood.
“A miracle is always a remarkable sign of the presence of God,” D’Souza said. “And this goes back to the gospels. Any time Jesus does a miracle, it is not to demonstrate that they can do a miracle, but to allow the people who witnessed the miracle to really experience the kingdom of God, the presence of God among us.”
He concluded: “The purpose of a miracle is not to break scientific law but to show that the presence of God is about the miracle of the presence of God.”
Clemente Lisi is the executive editor of Religion Unplugged. He previously served as deputy head of news at the New York Daily News and a longtime reporter at The New York Post. Follow him on X @ClementeLisi.