What do Catholic Priests in Wisconsin do when its December and you wake up to -11 degree Fahrenheit (-24 degree Celsius) raw temperatures? You start to wonder how you can get to Tucson, Arizona as quickly as possible!
Thankfully for this frigid friar, I don’t need too much creative planning to make this wish come true. I’ve booked my flight and received my confirmation e-mail for the 2026 Astronomy for Catholics in Ministry and Education!
For those of you who have followed Sacred Space Astronomy for some time, you know that ACME has taken on a special place in my priesthood and my life.
I’ve always loved the night sky since childhood. I remember the joy of looking at the Moons of Jupiter for the first time with my Celestron 4-inch reflector. Also, developing a relationship with the night sky also gave me a sense of closeness to God. Dare I say, there was never a real conflict for me between faith and astronomy. Both have lived quite nicely in me my whole life.
Therefore, to find something as a Priest that could help me explore faith and astronomy as friends and not combatants was always important to me. I have always felt a deep confusion when people would say things to me like, “How can you believe in God and love astronomy (and the sciences) so much?” I never had a clear answer primarily because the question never really computed in my head.
Sadly, I fell into the trap that many do that grew up with a healthy sense of the relationship between faith and science. I presumed that since so many people who are smarter than I said there is a conflict between two, then there must be. It led me down the road of trying to resolve a conflict that eventually emerged as a straw man. I learned that even though there are legitimate moral and ethical questions when exploring the application of science (medical ethics as an example – the fact we can do certain things doesn’t mean we should do certain things), science as a discipline does not contain a presumed battle with faith. In fact, drawing from St. John Paul II’s historic Encyclical Fides Et Ratio (faith and reason) science is part of that exploration of reason that constitutes one of the two wings that assist in our assent to truth. In short, I should have trusted my initial intuition.
This combined with Pope Benedict XVI’s writings on Human Ecology coupled with Pope Francis’ writings on Integral Ecology, not only do we live at a time in history in which people of faith are to be open to faith and science, but there is a clear call for the Christian faithful to do faith and science.
This doing of faith and science was presented by Pope Francis with two proposed Works of Mercy: Caring for Creation and Contemplating Creation. Our new Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, has continued this call to make care for creation a key question for our time. In his address on September 1, 2025, Pope Leo makes it clear that this recurring theme, going back to St. John Paul II’s call for an “ecological conversion, will continue.
Environmental justice – implicitly proclaimed by the prophets – can no longer be regarded as an abstract concept or a distant goal. It is an urgent need that involves much more than simply protecting the environment. For it is a matter of justice – social, economic and human. For believers it is also a duty born of faith, since the universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ, in whom all things were created and redeemed. In a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity. (Pope Leo XIV, For the 10th World Day of Prayer for Care for Creation 2025.)
You might be asking, what does this have to do with ACME2026?
Dare I say that the best way to approach this Workshop is through the lens of understanding the wonders of our created world and then taking time to thank God for them. Through presentations, practical projects, field trips and prayer, we will journey together to understand the wonders astronomy presents to us and then bring our faith to thank God for them.
For my presentation, I always like to add something new. This year I want to add a little project on how to co-mingle a little work with a little prayer. I want to teach the participants how they can edit astrophotography images.
At first you may think, “Fr. James, that’s a bit ambitious!” Yes, it is. However, as science and technology develop at a rapid pace, its getting easier and easier to do both astrophotography and astro-editing.
As you know, I hesitate to endorse products on this blog. However, when they are good and free, why not? For both ACME participants and our readers who might want to venture into this world, a product that once was a paid service that I use for editing my images has now been made free! You don’t see that everyday!!
I will give our participants a basic tutorial of the now free “Photoshop-ish” software Affinity Photo 3. Typically, I would not be this aggressive in recommending a product, especially since there are others that I could recommend such the astrophotography industry standard free software of Siril. I have used Siril and would have no hesitation to recommend this as well. I am going to showcase Affinity Photo because I do think there are some tools that make this very “beginner friendly” and might be more of what a “weekend warrior” astrophotographer might have time to use. Also, I like it and its my presentation!
For those of you attending ACME2026, bringing your own laptop and might be interested in learning astrophotography editing, I would encourage you to download Affinity Photo 3. It’s safe to download and you can always uninstall it if you decide you don’t like it. Follow this link or click the image to the left to download Affinity Photo 3.
Another free software package that I would highly recommend are the astrophotography editing macros developed by James Ritson. James is a photo editor that has developing macros for all types of photography, but his astrophotography macros designed specifically for Affinity Photo not only make photo editing quicker, but a lot of fun! When you “order” them, there is a dialogue box that asks for payment, but if you enter “0” you can download them for free. If, however, you want to give James a donation for his work and help support him develop more imaging tools, feel free to make a donation.
To help set your computer up for ACME2026, here is a tutorial from James Ritson. My presentation will be far more basic than James’ presentation, but I offer it for both our ACME participants and readers of Sacred Space Astronomy. See you in January and pray for clear skies!!
