The Vatican Observatory in partnership with the University of Arizona operates a 1.8 meter telescope built in the 1980s named the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or VATT. It is located 10,000 feet high on Mount Graham, AZ where the skies are among the clearest,...

After the time of Galileo, when the Catholic Church wrongly condemned him for his astronomical proof that the sun and not the earth was the center of the solar system, the Church developed a keen interest in astronomy. The papacy founded three early observatories:...

More than 400 books have been written about the Star of Bethlehem and how its story could fit within modern astronomy. In a recent article in Evening Standard Magazine, Guy Consolmago, the director of the Vatican Observatory, an American Jesuit brother with a...

On the first day of Advent on Dec. 1, 2019, Pope Francis traveled to the Italian town of Greccio – where St. Francis of Assisi in the year 1223 created the first nativity scene. Pope Francis issued an apostolic letter on the meaning and importance of nativity scenes,...

Telling about when he was a young Jesuit, Pope Francis In the book “El Jesuita”, published in 2010, said that “over time, I felt the desire to go as a missionary to Japan, where the Jesuits have always carried out a very important work.” In 1549 Jesuit missionary St....

The Amazonian synod entitled “New paths for the Church and for an integral ecology”, is the name of the upcoming meeting of bishops that is to be held at the Vatican from October 6th through 27th, 2019. The gigantic 2,700,000 square miles Amazon rainforest contains...

The 140th anniversary of the Apparition at Knock, Ireland was on August 21, 2019. That is where the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Baptist and Christ (as the Lamb of God) appeared to 15 local townspeople on the parish church’s gable wall. The shrine...

Pope Francis had said that when he became Pope he didn’t want to travel very much because it was not in his nature. But a'er his first trip, a refugee camp, he realized the importance of his fatherly encounters where he can meet the people, hear their testimonies and...

In 2013 when Pope Francis was in Rio de Janeiro for World Youth Day, he visited a hospital run by the Fraternity of Saint Francis of Assisi in the Providence of God. He asked the Fraternity if they had members in the Amazon. The reply was “no” and Francis simply...

On July 20, 2019 America and the world celebrated the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. It was the NASA space mission which for the first time attempted, and was successful in landing two men on the surface of the moon and returned them safely to Earth. Like millions of...

After returning from his discovery of the New World, Christopher Columbus in February 1493 wrote a letter to Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the patrons of his exploration, telling them what he saw during his travels. The letter was written in Spanish and...

… continued One of the strangest spectacles that was ever seen at the Vatican took place in 1890 when William Cody - (Buffalo Bill) was invited there. Two years earlier, he and his Wild West Show had traveled for the first time to Europe, having great success, and...