Popes and Astronomy

  • Book chapter (PDF)
  • 33 pages
  • Level: all audiences

This chapter from the 2009 book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican includes relevant statements by modern Popes, from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI, about the Church and astronomy.  Contents include:

Pope Leo XIII
Excerpt from 
AETERNI PATRIS, 1879
THE REFOUNDATION AND RESTRUCTURING OF THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY, 1891

Pope Pius XI
DEUM CREATOREM VENITE ADOREMUS, 1935

Pope Pius XII
Excerpt from 
AN ADDRESS to the PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 1939
Excerpt from THE PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE, 1951
ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE INTERATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION, 1952

Pope St. John Paul II
LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II TO REVEREND GEORGE V. COYNE, S.J., DIRECTOR OF THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY, 1983

Pope Benedict XVI
ADDRESS TO THE 2007 VATICAN OBSERVATORY SUMMER SCHOOL
ADDRESS TO THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 2008
ADDRESS AT THE WEEKLY ANGELUS, 21 December 2008
HOMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD, 2009

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