VATICAN CORNER
On October 26, 2017, in an office in the Vatican, Pope Francis held a 20 minute video interview with the six astronauts currently orbiting the Earth 250 miles high in the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS is the most complex international scientific and engineering project in history and the largest structure humans have ever put into space. It is a laboratory for new technologies, a platform for astronomical observation, a place for environmental research, and a stepping stone for further space exploration. It circles the globe every 90 minutes, has been continuously occupied for 17 years, been visited by 227 astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourist from 17 different nations. Current experiments at the Station involve studying cosmic ray particles, the manufacture of fiber optic filaments in microgravity, therapies to improve muscle atrophy, and investigating the abilities of a new drug to accelerate bone repair. The invitation for the interview came from the Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, who was currently on the station with three Americans and two Russians. Nespoli was also on the Space Station in 2011 when Pope Benedict XVI became the first Pope to speak to astronauts in space. In a change from the usual format for papal interviews, Pope Francis asked the questions and the astronauts did the answering, and Nespoli did the Italian translation. Francis asked the astronauts about their experiences, and their thoughts regarding the place of man in the universe. He asked their opinions on love, their sources of joy and how life without gravity changed their view of the world. The mission commander American Randolph Bresnik told Francis that being in space gave him an opportunity to see “God’s creation maybe a little bit from His perspective. He said “people cannot come up here and see the indescribable beauty of our earth and not be touched in their souls.” “As we see the peace and serenity of our planet as it goes around at 10 kilometers a second – and there’s no borders, there’s no conflict, it’s just peaceful. And you see the thinness of the atmosphere, it make you realize how fragile our existence here is.” Pope Francis called the Station a “little glass palace” – greater than the sum of its parts, and thanked the astronauts for their work, saying they represented the human family. In 1969 Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first two humans on the Moon. A silicon disk was le+ on the Moon containing signed messages from many world leaders including Pope Paul VI. Following the mission the Bishop of Orlando, Florida, William Borders told the Pope that according to the 1917 Code of Canon Law, because the first explorers of the Moon departed from Cape Kennedy which was in his jurisdiction, then the Moon became part of his Diocese.
References: theguardian.com, washingtonpost.com, nytimes.com, cruxnow.com