Skip to content
Vatican Observatory
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact
  • About
    • Overview
    • Team
    • FAQ
  • Telescopes
    • Overview
    • Telescope Images
  • Latest
    • Overview
    • Resources
    • Press
    • Audio
    • Video
    • Research
    • Authors
      • FAQs
    • Newsletter
    • Tucson Meteor Cameras
  • Podcast
  • Education
    • Overview
    • Resource Center
    • Image Gallery
    • Summer School
    • Books
    • Software
    • Additional Resources
    • ACME
    • Ambassadors
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
    • Overview
    • Donate Now
    • Sacred Space Astronomy
      • View Content
    • Fr. Coyne Fundraiser
    • Bequests / Trusts
    • The Foundation
      • Newsletters
      • Annual Reports
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
    • Contact

As it is in the heavens…

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  6 Jan 2022

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

This entry is part 192 of 201 in the series Across the Universe

This Across the Universe column first appeared in The Tablet in January, 2019, talking about the workshop that we run every other year (except for Covid); the current workshop, now called ACME, is happening next week!

Immersed in astronomy

The idea came out of the blue. A diocesan priest from rural Wisconsin, Fr. James Kurzynski, wrote to ask: did the Vatican Observatory run workshops on astronomy for parish priests? No, I replied. But we ought to. Thus our biennial Faith and Astronomy Workshop [now called Astronomy for Catholics in Ministry and Education] was born. We’ve just concluded our fourth one [as of when this was published].

What sort of workshop was he actually looking for? Who should attend? What should they do? With other members of the Vatican Observatory and, most importantly, Fr. James himself, the idea took shape. First the basics: start Monday, end Friday, when the weather in Tucson is not blazing hot and parish priests aren’t overwhelmed with work at home. That meant January. Limit the numbers to two dozen or so, open to anyone who is an educator in a Catholic setting. And finally, keep the “work” in “workshop”: make them come up with the answers… and questions.

False advertising!

To lure in our participants we start with some false advertising: “What can modern astronomy tell us about creation and the Creator?” It’s a good question. But we never attempt to answer it. Instead, our real goal is to teach the teachers about what astronomy actually is… how astronomers work and think. Anyone can read an astronomy web site — there are plenty of them — but none of them look quite the same once you have lived with the astronomers in their native habitat for a few days. With that experience, the teachers themselves can work out their own understanding.

At the first FAW back in 2015 with Dolores Hill in her natural environment: a meteorite collection!

We invite speakers from the local astronomical community to share with us their latest data about galaxies, or teach us to handle meteorites. We visit the places where telescope mirrors are made, and spacecraft are guided around asteroids. (The 2019 workshop featured a trip to the “Biosphere 2”, now a research outpost of the University of Arizona, where we learned about its magnificent failure to reproduce a full Earth eco-system and what that means both to future space travelers and for life on our own delicate eco-system, planet Earth.) And we spend time at night looking through good amateur telescopes into the dark Arizona skies… and praying under the stars.

Nebulous concepts

An important element to the workshop, to my mind, is learning more about the history of astronomy. When we see how astronomical ideas used to be understood, and misunderstood, we can appreciate the Church’s role for good and ill (it’s done both), and how clever we aren’t today in our modern understanding. 

The participants soon realize that the nebulous concept of “faith and astronomy” involves some classic, if ultimately unanswerable, questions. How does God act in the universe? What is science? (What is theology, for that matter?) And why do we do this? Why does it matter? Why do we care?

Closing Mass with Fr. James Kurzynski

For surely, we do care. Astronomy fascinates everyone, from the villagers I met in my Peace Corps days in Africa, to the cynical teenagers I once taught in New York City. It confronts you with the immensity of reality, where there must be a God… but how could He ever notice me? (See Psalm 8!) It confounds your common sense (black holes? dark energy? dark matter?) even as it seduces you with its breathless beauty. It pulls you out of your comfortable cocoon, and forces you to unfold wings you never knew you had.

Through it all, we are reminded that astronomy is not about stars and planets. It is about human beings; and our feeble, fun, leaps of the imagination stretching to grasp God’s universe.

Share:
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share via Email

Sacred Space Astronomy

The Vatican Observatory’s official digital community and online magazine.

Become a Member

Recent Posts

From the Backyard: Tracking Down Comet c/2022 e3 (ztf)

By Fr. James Kurzynski  |  30 Jan 2023

ⓜ Full Moon-th Meetup: 5 February, 2023

By Robert Trembley  |  30 Jan 2023  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

Astronomy in Art & Architecture: A “Laudato Si” Mural on the Highway to Climate (and Light Pollution) Hell

By Mr. Christopher Graney  |  28 Jan 2023

The Astronomer Who Questioned Everything: The Story of Maria Mitchell

By Faith and Science  |  24 Jan 2023  |  Resources

Archives

      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • October
      • September
      • August
      • July
      • June
      • May
      • April
      • March
      • February
      • January
      • December
      • November
      • August
      • June
      • March
      • January
      • November
      • October
      • December
      • November
      • April
      • May
      • January
      • December
      • September
      • May
      • March
      • December
      • November
      • February

More Posts in this Series:
"Across the Universe"

78  |  What Do We Lose When We Sacrifice Science?

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  27 May 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

69  |  To err is human… to admit it, is science

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  25 Mar 2021  |  Sacred Space Astronomy

191  |  Across the Universe: Looking overhead

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  6 Jan 2019

193  |  Across the Universe: A Fading Star

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  20 Jan 2022

194  |  Across the Universe: Still small voice

By Br. Guy Consolmagno  |  17 Feb 2022

Newsletter

Upcoming astronomical events, scientific breakthroughs, philosophical reflections… just a few reasons to subscribe to our newsletter!

  • *
Vatican Observatory
  • About
  • Telescopes
  • Latest
  • Podcast
  • Education
  • Shop
  • Calendar
  • Support
  • Press
  • Specola Vaticana
  • Contact
Privacy Policy  |   Cookie Policy  |   Disclosure Statement

Podcast:

  • Apple Podcasts Listen onApple Podcasts
  • Spotify Listen onSpotify
  • Google Podcasts Listen onGoogle Podcasts
  • Stitcher Listen onStitcher
  • Amazon Alexa Listen onAmazon Alexa
  • TuneIn Listen onTuneIn
Made by Longbeard