'Doing Science Is An Act Of Worship'

DRAPER, Utah (CNS) – Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno finds no conflict between the science he pursues in studying meteorites and the Catholic faith he practices every day.

            Director of the Vatican Observatory, the Michigan native explored the intersection of religion and science in a series of presentations in Utah, saying that the two fields are more similar than they are different.

            "You can't use science to do religion, and you can't use religion to do science; and yet religion and science don't exist independent of the human beings who do them,” Brother Guy said. “The human beings who are successful at their knowledge of God … have learned the difference between a glorious painting and Elvis on black velvet.

            "If your scientific taste is like an Elvis on black velvet, you're probably not going to be a very good scientist – even if you can handle the math," he suggested. "That sense of elegance, that sense of knowing the truth and recognizing beauty, is what points us to God and allows us to do the science."

            Brother Guy described the history of the Vatican Observatory, which began with a telescope on the walls of the Vatican, was formally established in Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence in Italy, in 1891 and today includes a facility on Mount Graham in southeast Arizona.

            Brother Guy sprinkled humor liberally throughout his talks. Describing his time working at Castel Gandolfo, the pope's summer home, he said, "The floor above the pope's apartments was the Vatican observatory. As we liked to point out at the time, we were the only people in the entire Vatican, in the entire Catholic Church, who were above the pope."

            Keeping with the subject of his presentation, "Adventures of a Vatican Astronomer," he described spending weeks searching for meteorites in Antarctica.

            "There I was in a place just like Psalm 139 describes, where the night is as bright as day. It was a spiritual experience," he said.

            Afterward, he vacationed in New Zealand, where he was asked to help a woman whose husband plummeted down a mountain and died. The woman, who was German, did not speak English so he translated for her.

            "I hope we did her some good," he said. "I know she did me some good because being a Jesuit brother in the Vatican Observatory doesn't only mean that I get to do wonderful science, it means that I get to be an ambassador of the Creator in lots of different ways, often ways that I am completely unprepared for, but somehow God is able to make sure I don't do too badly.

            "The heavens do proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament the work of his hands," he said. "It is not only my joy and a privilege to be able to get to know those heavens, but to share it with all of you."           

            Mischel is editor of the Intermountain Catholic, newspaper of the Salt Lake City Diocese.