Is the Vatican Observatory training missionaries for Mars? Is it part of a conspiracy to hide evidence of UFOs? Or is it the Pope鈥檚 way of saying sorry for the persecution of Galileo? No way, says Guy Consolmagno, a former NASA astronomer who now works there. It鈥檚 a regular scientific establishment, funded out of the Vatican鈥檚 vast wealth and therefore, paradoxically, free to do genuine research. But then Consolmagno is also a Jesuit whose new book is a mission to set the record straight. Hazel Muir asked him whether despite the Pontiff鈥檚 attempts to apologise for the Church鈥檚 many injustices, religion could ever really coexist with science.
First, the burning question. Is a Vatican-funded observatory the Pope鈥檚 way of saying sorry for the Galileo affair?
I suppose so, if you meant Pope Leo XIII, who founded the modern observatory in 1891. But there were astronomers working for the papacy, for instance in reforming the calendar, long before Galileo. And it鈥檚 more than just a PR exercise on behalf of the Catholic Church. It鈥檚 also a PR exercise for science directed at all the churches. The Vatican Observatory exists to show the world that science and religion can coexist. I feel the real audience is not scientists-I think most scientists understand the role of science and religion very well-but religious people, who tend to be very suspicious of science. So in a way I feel myself to be an ambassador of science to religious people.
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Do you ever discuss science with the Pope personally?
No, although the director of the observatory does, and the Pope also likes to have informal conversations in Polish with a priest at the observatory called Michael Heller, who works on cosmology. The Pope is interested in science. He was a university professor before he became a bishop, and he just likes to know what鈥檚 going on out of an intellectual curiosity. He never intervenes in the running of the observatory.
It sounds as if the Pope is fairly science-literate. Yet it took him a long time to accept that evolution is 鈥渕ore than just a hypothesis鈥�. Why?
Every time the Pope opens his mouth, the rest of the world says: 鈥淕ee, it鈥檚 about time.鈥� They don鈥檛 recognise that a similar statement was made fifty or a hundred or two hundred years earlier. People鈥檚 preconceptions about the Church are so rigid that the more the Church tries to convince people it is modern, the more people say that just shows how backwards the Church was before. It鈥檚 a game you can鈥檛 win.
What can you tell us about the Galileo trial that鈥檚 new?
I don鈥檛 think Galileo鈥檚 trial was religious persecution-Galileo was never accused of heresy. He had promised not to teach or promote the Copernican system. He was asked not to do that because it was going to lead to unrest and conflict. But twenty years later he broke his promise and wrote about the Copernican system in his book.
That doesn鈥檛 sound particularly Earth-shattering . . .
My pet theory, which I could not prove to save my life, is that he got caught out on this technicality because he was trapped in a geopolitical struggle. It was during the height of the Thirty Years鈥� War in Europe. His benefactor in Florence was secretly supporting the French against Spain. But Spain had the support of Rome. The Spaniards had a lot of power, and troops in Italy. And I think the Church picked on Galileo as an easy target. Remember, in those days the Church was also a government, a world power that had territory to protect.
The Pope has apologised again for the Church鈥檚 past injustices-he previously apologised for the Galileo affair in the early 1990s. But what鈥檚 the point of asking forgiveness for something when the wronged party has been dead for four centuries?
It鈥檚 not for them, but for us . . . because sin hurts the sinner. And we are hurt. We鈥檙e a human church, and so a broken church. Ask any shrink (or priest who hears confessions) and they鈥檒l tell you that admitting you made a mistake is the first, and hardest, part of learning to heal.
It would be nice if people saw in this act of humility that their idea of a triumphalistic, arrogant Church is incomplete. Time doesn鈥檛 matter; it鈥檚 never too late. God is outside of space and time. It鈥檚 God we鈥檝e offended, and to God we offer contrition.
What does the outside world make of the Vatican Observatory?
A fairly major newspaper in Chicago once described us as the Pope鈥檚 astrologers, and they think we set the date of Easter every year. Of course, the Vatican Observatory was formally founded to work out the reform of the calendar in 1582, which did set the date of Easter, but that doesn鈥檛 mean we have to observe the Moon every year and change things around. Then there is the host of a late-night radio show in America who鈥檚 convinced that the Vatican Observatory is part of a conspiracy to hide evidence of UFOs. And another newspaper claims we鈥檙e training missionaries to send to Mars.
What do you really do?
I am in charge of the meteorite collection, one of the largest in the world. It came from a private collector, the Marquis de Mauroy, who was probably the premier meteorite collector in Europe in the 19th century. His widow inherited it, and when she died she donated it to the Vatican. It was exciting to be put in charge. Most of the research I鈥檇 done in meteorites before then was theoretical-it was incredibly inspiring to see the rocks that actually came from the places I鈥檇 always been interested in. Most astronomers think they study stars or planets, but really all they study is photons. I have actual specimens from places in outer space.
What are your current research interests?
My biggest research interest right now is understanding the physical structure of meteorites, in particular why the gas and dust they formed from in the solar nebula compacted into solid rock. It鈥檚 a hint to an important process we haven鈥檛 really completely understood that was fundamental in the formation of planets. The other thing I鈥檓 working on in a much less intense way is observations of the Kuiper Belt objects. These are the guys, perhaps 100 kilometres or so across, that are out beyond Pluto, which some people think are pristine examples of early Solar System material. I suspect there鈥檚 no such thing as a pristine example of the early Solar System. The intense radiation in space has probably altered their surface material. We鈥檙e beginning to see hints that this has given them two different colours, a greyish and a reddish version.
You joined the Jesuits after 15 years in mainstream science. What prompted the move?
I had first thought of entering the Jesuits much earlier, while I was still in my first year at university, mostly to get away from problems. I was 18 years old in a country that was going mad with Vietnam, drugs and drinking. I was completely uninterested in that. I was a nerd, and I wanted to study. I鈥檇 always been a practising Catholic, although pretty much a mechanical one. So I thought of entering the Jesuits as a way of running away from those other people.
What dissuaded you at the time?
I asked the Jesuits what they thought, and they told me to go to my room and ask God if this is what I wanted to do. I felt very foolish but I did what they suggested. I sat on the floor, stared at the ceiling waiting for a voice from heaven, and nothing came. But while I was sitting there I asked myself: 鈥淲hat actually does a priest do for a living?鈥� A priest works with people with problems-just like the sorts of people I was trying to run away from. So I realised that in fact what I should be doing with my life was to take advantage of the things I could do well. It was only many years later-having had a lot of success as a scientist, having had a good income and having dated someone for five years-that I found myself willing to become a Jesuit in full knowledge of what I would miss.
Was it easy 鈥渃oming out鈥�?
By becoming publicly religious I鈥檝e given a lot of scientists the freedom to talk about their own religion. I also find that scientists ask me about problems with their marriages and a lot of other very personal things. Vatican astronomers also adjudicate political fights in the scientific community. That鈥檚 probably because we have an absolutely independent source of funding-no one is competing with us for our money and we鈥檙e not competing with them.
Do scientists react differently to you now because you work for the Vatican?
Much to my embarrassment, yes. Before I became a Jesuit, a lot of people in my field knew me very well without ever knowing that I was particularly religious. It surprised me how many of them started to ask me profound questions about the meaning of the Universe, the issues that we all wonder about late at night. I had no idea what the answers were the previous year, so why would I know them now?
What is the difference between working at the Vatican and, say, working for NASA?
First of all, there鈥檚 tremendous freedom. I am given the freedom to work on what I find interesting, without it being tied to any particular politician鈥檚 ideas of what鈥檚 in the national interest this week. I鈥檓 also given the freedom to work over a very long term. I don鈥檛 have to worry about budget cycles, so I don鈥檛 have to apply for grants, I don鈥檛 have to sit on committees and I don鈥檛 have to justify my work year in and year out. When I was being supported by NASA, I was limited to what NASA would agree to fund. Now I can look at realms of science that are high risk-you don鈥檛 know if there鈥檚 going to be a scientific benefit at the end of it or not. I do the science now for the sheer fun of it.
You say you鈥檙e free to choose your field. But would you be allowed to work on the big bang?
Well, it鈥檚 funny you should mention the big bang because, of course, the first big bang theory was proposed by a priest, Georges Lema卯tre. And we do in fact have a fellow at the observatory who鈥檚 doing mathematical cosmology work on the big bang. In general, there鈥檚 no conflict. The Galileo affair was unique and contrary to the history of the Catholic Church, which has always supported scholarship, and founded universities. It recognises that the material world is a valid thing to study because it鈥檚 the creation of God.
How would the Church react if astronomers discovered life elsewhere?
I鈥檓 perfectly happy if it turns out that there are dozens and dozens or millions of intelligent species out there, each with their own little religions. I鈥檒l be fascinated to see how God has dealt with them. The discovery of life elsewhere in the Universe is the sort of thing that the Church has happily accepted the possibility of, going back to the earliest of days. You can find debates in the Middle Ages about the possibility of other worlds. To insist that God couldn鈥檛 have made other worlds or other creatures, that would be heresy. God can do anything God wants.
What do you think an extraterrestrial would be like?
I think you have to remember that they鈥檙e going to be made out of the same atoms as us, they鈥檙e going to follow the same laws of physics and, I feel, the same laws of philosophy. I鈥檓 not sure that there are any aliens in the Universe because I鈥檓 not sure that I could call an ET an alien. I don鈥檛 see what would make them alien at all. I think they鈥檇 be, if not our brothers and sisters, then at least our cousins in the Universe.