Happy Easter! Once again, it is my pleasure to welcome
Dr. Kate Bulinski of Bellarmine University as a guest writer.
All I had to do for this post was edit and format it,
and prod an AI into spawning the image above!
What do you get when you mix thirty Catholic bishops, thirty archdiocesan and diocesan educational leaders, and a dozen or so Catholic scientists? In February we had a chance to find out at the conference titled “The Relation Between Science and Faith as a Pastoral Issue in an Age of Disaffiliation” at the University of Notre Dame, which was organized for bishops and diocesan leaders from across the United States. This one-of-a-kind event was co-sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Doctrine, and the McGrath Institute for Church Life with support from the Society of Catholic Scientists and a grant from the John Templeton Foundation.
I was there serving as a representative from the Society of Catholic Scientists (SCS). Of note: there was representation from the Vatican Observatory at this event. Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J. was there to deliver the keynote address on the first evening of the conference and Fr. David Brown, S.J. attended as a scientist to dialogue with the conference participants.
Over the course of three days, we had a chance to hear from leading experts in faith/science integration, enter into dialogue, and wrangle with the thorny challenge of what to do to counteract misconceptions about faith and science and the Church which may be a contributing factor to disaffiliation, particularly among young people.
The beginning of the conference opened with fellowship, a chance for scientists and bishops to mingle. We had excellent conversation over dinner, swapping stories and asking questions about our respective areas of expertise and how they relate to faith, science, and Catholic education. There were fun side conversations happening where we were able to nerd out about our favorite sci-fi novels or science museums. It was a bit surreal to sit down with a whole table of bishops to just swap stories and talk.
Dinner was followed by Brother Guy’s keynote address entitled “A Jesuit’s Guide to the Stars” which shares the title with his recent book. As anyone who has ever heard Brother Guy speak, we were treated to an entertaining and inspiring survey of the contributions of Jesuit scientists. We also were pulled into a sense of the awe and wonder that accompanies the scientific study of Creation, and especially the cosmos. It was an appropriate and enjoyable way to set the tone for the rest of the conference.
The next day, following morning prayer and breakfast, we assembled to hear four excellent lectures. The first talk, by Dr. Laura Upenieks, Associate Professor of Sociology at Baylor University was entitled “Bridging the Divide: Science, Faith, and the Sociology of Religious Disaffiliation.” She presented some of the most recent data revealing public perception of faith and science compatibility and trust in institutions. Included in the talk was data from a 2025 Pew study that revealed that less religious people are more likely to say that religion and science are in conflict (73%) than people who were classified in the “high religiousness” category (35%). Another revealing statistic comes from the Values and Beliefs of the American Public Survey (2025): 74% of Americans trust scientists “somewhat” or “a lot.” In contrast, 38% of same respondents place the same amount of trust in the Pope and 35% in Catholic priests. It is clear from these data that perceptions of faith/science conflict as well as distrust of the institutional Church are deeply embedded in our culture. One of the takeaways I drew from Dr. Upenieks’ talk was that “cultural warfare primes students to expect conflict.” Even if our own faith presents compatibility between faith and science, it is an uphill battle to dispel false notions of conflict. It is the duty of Catholic scientists and members of the clergy to present an authentic, non-defensive, and consistent public witness to the harmonious integration of faith and science in the Catholic Church.
The next talk was by Dr. Karin Ӧberg, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University and was entitled “Cosmic Origins and Christian Creation.” In this talk she highlighted three Catholic Scientists who provided insight on our origins: Blessed Nicholas Steno, who composed the laws of stratigraphy and gave us insight about geological processes and time; Fr. Gregor Mendel, who revealed how heredity helped us understand how the biological world could change; and Fr. Georges Lemaitre, the theoretical physicist who famously proposed the Big Bang theory. Dr. Ӧberg beautifully wove together a picture of the intelligibility of creation and that creation requires an ultimate first cause, that of God, using insights from Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine, St. Basil and excerpts from scripture.
Dr. Dan Kuebler, Professor of Biology at Franciscan University delivered the next lecture on “Chance vs. Purpose, Competition vs. Cooperation: Is There an Underlying Meaning of Evolution?” This lecture was a foray into evolutionary processes and drew contrast between a Neo-Darwinian model for evolution that implies randomness, unpredictability, a lack of direction and inherent struggle vs. a convergent view of evolution where there is a deeper order, predictable solutions to biological needs, cooperation leading to evolutionary change, and a general directionality towards complexity. These two models, present different ways of interpreting biological evidence, which introduce different implications for purpose and meaning and what it means for how we think of ourselves as a part of the evolutionary process.
The last talk of that afternoon was from Dr. Kieran McNulty, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota, who spoke on “The Origin of the Human Species: The Scientific Perspective in Light of Faith.” Dr. McNulty is a paleoanthropologist who researches anatomical shape differences between humans and our evolutionary ancestors. His talk presented the most up-to-date information about what we know about our evolutionary origins and discussed some of the qualities, anatomical and otherwise, that we might recognize as distinctively human. This fascinating presentation also was an excellent demonstration of what science can and cannot reveal. There are certain aspects of the prehistoric world, like the evolution of language, or symbolic thought, or intellect that is not possible to definitively pin down with the fossil record. Dr. McNulty did point out one aspect of what we think of as distinctively human, namely that our developmental timing requires a protracted period of childhood, where culture, language, and other forms of social learning develop. Lastly, a discussion of the recognition of signs of caritas in the hominid fossil record was discussed and that the theological virtues like faith, hope, and love are what allow us to transcend our biological heritage to be fully human.
The afternoon included a discussion session for just the bishops and Catholic scientists in attendance, where the scientists spoke about their sense of their vocation and calling, and the bishops asked questions and shared thoughts about the intersection of science and the Church. A few takeaways from the discussion: the necessity to always be pursuing Truth in all of its forms, the need for scientists to inspire awe and wonder as a path to encountering God, and a sense (or even a lament) that the positionality of science as a part of the work of the Church has changed dramatically (or to put more dramatically: “stolen from us”). This last point I find very interesting, as it is true that so much of our scientific discoveries and disciplines are historically situated in Catholic institutions and advanced by Catholic scientists, and the myth of conflict has swamped out much of our cultural memory of this rich legacy of fruitful compatibility.
After a Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (with so many priests and bishops concelebrating they were still processing after four verses of the opening hymn), our evening presentation following dinner was by the president and vice-president of the Society of Catholic Scientists: Dr. Steve Barr, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Delaware, and Dan Kuebler (who spoke earlier that day). They shared how the society provides an opportunity for bringing Catholic scientists together in fellowship and also creates resources and sponsors programs that are a witness to faith and science compatibility.
The morning of our final day we had a traveler’s Mass, held in one of the small chapels on campus. It was a strange experience to kneel in the pew while priests and bishops all around me were concelebrating the Mass. It was like experiencing the liturgy in surround sound!
Our second to last talk included an address by Dr. Barr on “Frequently Asked Questions in Science and Religion” where he discussed some of the most important points of intersection between theology and science that inform both faith and scientific inquiry. For anyone not in the know, Dr. Barr is not only the founder of SCS but also the author of several formative books about science and the Catholic faith including Modern Physics, Ancient Faith. For anyone wishing to watch one of his lectures, there are many excellent videos of Dr. Barr giving lectures; a simple Google search will not disappoint. Many common questions are also addressed on the SCS website here.
The final session was delivered by Dr. Christopher Baglow and Heather Foucault-Camm, who serve as Academic Director and Program Director of the Science and Religion Initiative (SRI) of the McGrath Institute for Church Life. In this talk, entitled “Beyond Conflict: Faith and Science in Evangelization and Catechesis,” the presenters discussed how our theological tradition and Church teachings can point us toward the integration of faith and science and why this is important to our world today. They supplied everyone with an excellent collection of excerpts from scripture, Church documents, and theologians speaking on the topic. Baglow and Foucault-Camm also discussed the importance of integrating faith and reason, in terms of the need to wrangle with difficult issues like discerning the ethics of Artificial Intelligence use in the modern age as it relates to what it means to be human.
They concluded with a discussion of the programs and resources available through SRI for Catholic teachers to access so that this work can continue in Catholic dioceses across the nation.
Whew. That was a lot to pack into three days, but I found myself wishing we had another day or two to delve deeper. One of the questions I asked the bishops was whether they were bringing back any ideas to their dioceses. Several bishops planned to share textbook recommendations, resources on the SCS website or information about the programs offered by SRI. Some discussed including a formation session on faith and science for a future presbyteral assembly for their priests. Others were not quite sure which direction they wanted to go. It was clear they were enriched and engaged by the excellent presentations and discussion at the conference, but there was not a perfectly clear set of objectives that they were leaving with.
Having been involved with faith and science outreach work for the last 17 years, I can say that this is the perpetual struggle. The problem is, as we heard from Dr. Upenieks, the perceptions of faith/science conflict are baked into our culture, so this is not an easy fix, even for a room full of bishops. It requires slow, systematic work, educating school administrators, teachers and catechists, religious brothers and sisters, deacons, priests, and bishops, parents and students, school by school, parish by parish, and on and on. It is not as simple as hosting one lecture about Jesuits and astronomy (as awesome as that is) and calling it a “win” or handing out a stack of faith and science textbooks to a principal, or hosting a professional development workshop. We will have to do these things again, and again, and again until the understanding of faith and science as two paths to Truth is woven into the fabric of how Catholics see the world (and how the rest of the world sees Catholics). This may take generations to take effect. The good news though is that this work is happening, more than ever, and it will continue through the good work of the people involved with hosting this conference as well as the Vatican Observatory!
