Vatican spaceman lands in Surrey
Guy Consolmagno, SJ an astronomer who works for the Vatican Observatory is to speak at Christ the King Catholic parish, Weybridge Surrey this Saturday, 8 November.
He will be making a series of presentations to parishioners and others on 'Finding God in Space' starting at 11.15am in the parish hall.
Guy believes in the need for science and religion to work alongside one another rather than as competing ideologies. A member of the Jesuit order, Guy is among other things the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo near Rome. His work focusses on the links between asteroids and meteorites, and the origins and evolution of small bodies in the solar system.
Castel Gandolfo has been home to a Vatican Observatory since 1930s. Several earlier observatories were also in Rome, the first in 16th century - which makes it is one of the oldest continuous astronomical institutes in the world. Since 1981, a sister observatory has operated in Tucson, Arizona, USA because of the brightening skies over Castel Gandolfo.
Guy's commitment to both his faith and science reflects the ongoing commitment of the Catholic Church to the compatibility of science and religion. In 2006, he said, "Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism- it's turning God into a nature god."
Guy is the author of several popular astronomy books as well as the BBC radio series 'A Brief History of the End of Everything'.
Source: Diocese of A&B