Interview with Bro. Guy Consolmagno, past Director of the Vatican Observatory

In astronomy, beauty and joy meet: the signs of the presence of God. Knowing what beauty and joy mean allows you to recognize them even in prayer and thus understand what to look for in science. This was stated by the Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, former Director of the Vatican Observatory, from 2015 to September 19^th 2025, in this interview with www.vaticanstate.va.

How has the role of the Vatican Observatory evolved over the years in terms of its scientific contributions?

The changes in how science is done at the Specola mirror how science itself has changed over the past 130 years. Originally the work of the Specola was restricted to a few projects done under the direction of the Director. That began to change with the appointment of Fr. Patrick Treanor in 1970 and after his untimely death in 1978, accelerated under the leadership of his successor, Fr. George Coyne. A new generation of astronomers were added to the staff who were given the independence to follow their own lines of research.

However, much of Coyne’s term was consumed with the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, so that by the 1990s there were only two or three astronomers free to produce active research papers. Fortunately, Coyne also conducted an extremely successful recruitment program to bring new Jesuit astronomers to the Specola. Meanwhile, during this time the location of that research was centered primarily at the Specola offices in Tucson.

Once the telescope was in full operation and many of these new staff had joined at the Specola, the pace of research really increased. This was especially evident during the time when Fr. José Funes served as director. The move to new quarters in the Papal Gardens in 2009 allowed more room and new scientific facilities such as the greatly enhanced meteorite lab. And Funes expanded the institution of “Adjunct Astronomers”, scientists employed elsewhere but with a Vatican-approved affiliation with the Specola.

This background thus set the stage for where the Specola is today. Now we have active scientific research coming from a dozen Jesuit astronomers employed at the Specola itself in a number of different fields, especially in the fields of stellar spectroscopy, meteoritics, and minor planet observations, plus the work of the Adjuncts who are often invited to join us precisely because of how their fields complement the work done at the Specola. I would assert it would be hard to find an area of modern astronomical research where the Specola is not present.

This work has also expanded to include cutting edge research in the history and philosophy of astronomy. led in many cases by these Adjuncts. Among them, Ileana Chinnici and Christopher Graney have both produced award-winning books in the field of the history of astronomy, while Louis Caruana and Fr. Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti have added important research in the philosophy and theology of science.

The role of the Specola as given to us by Pope Leo XIII is to show the world that the Church supports good science. Just in terms of numbers of papers published, we have tripled the amount of peer-reviewed work done at the Specola in the past thirty years. We have also expanded our public outreach to “show the world”… as will be described below.

What do you consider to be the most significant discoveries made by the Vatican Observatory during your time?

One measure of the significance of a scientific paper is simply to see how often a scientific paper has been cited by other papers. By that measure, the most cited paper by a member of the Specola over the past ten years is work on the stripping of gas from galaxies led by Bianca Poggianti, which included contributions from Specola astronomer Alessandro Omizzolo. Since its publication in 2017, this paper has been cited 330 times in the scientific literature (according to the NASA ADS Database).

Two other highly cited papers include observations in support of the LAMOST survey of stars that includes contributions by Chris Corbally, cited 123 times so far, and a review paper on meteorite physical properties that includes both Guy Consolmagno and Robert Macke as authors, cited 105 times. Of particular note is a paper in the prestigious journal Nature in 2018 by Richard D’Souza on the evolution of the Andromeda galaxy, which has been cited 112 times and was also featured on the cover of Sky and Telescope Magazine.

One problem with using only citations as a criterion for significance, however, is that obviously older papers have had a longer time to be cited. Thus I would like to point out two more recent items of research which in my opinion have the potential to be very significant in the future.

The first is the work on cosmology from Gabriele Gionti and Matteo Galaverni. Their mathematical calculations on the different sorts of approaches to cosmological questions has been published in a very prestigious physics journal and marks a significant step forward in the ways that we attempt to understand the nature of the universe itself at the very earliest moments after creation. In this sense it is a small step but in a very large and important question.

Second, the work on measuring the physical properties of both samples of asteroid Bennu returned by the recent NASA mission and on meteorites that appear to be good analogues for that material, done primarily by Robert Macke, along with his work on NASA’s Lucy mission to the Trojan asteroids, is equal to any science being done in the field today. His discoveries of how these samples behave at asteroidal temperatures will be fundamental not only to our understanding of the asteroids from a scientific perspective but they are also crucial to our ability to exploit, or deflect, these asteroids as they approach Earth.

How do you see the relationship between astronomy and theology, especially in the context of the Vatican's mission?

Science cannot prove God, and no theological principle can be derived from science. Likewise, one does not find the answer to scientific questions in scripture or tradition. There are many ways to demonstrate this, but perhaps the most obvious is to remember that even though truth is eternal, the science that we use to express even those limited truths that are its proper realm is constantly changing. To put it another way, a theology based on the best science of the day will be obsolete as soon as the science it is based on is replaced by something better.

But science and faith do interact and support each other. In his letter to Fr. Coyne, the Director of the Observatory during his papacy, Saint John Paul II noted that “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”

What can I add to that in light of my experience with the Vatican Observatory?

First, I find that the science I do gives me the awareness that all my descriptions of the truth, scientific or theological, are but poetic metaphors for the ineffable. But since that is true, the more images we have, the more metaphors we can employ, the better we can come to grips with. Thus being familiar with science gives me more ways to imagine God.

It also gives me a sense or familiarity with what “truth” feels like when I encounter it. I am reminded often of the adage of the mathematician John von Neumann who said that “you never really understand mathematics, you just get used to it.” I think that describes well how one can get used to God and Nature… by spending a lot of time with each and recognizing that there is always more to learn. In particular, it is one thing to say (truthfully) that God is subtle, but after all it was Einstein looking at a scientific problem who coined the phrase, “God is subtle but He is not malicious.”

Finally, in astronomy I encounter beauty and joy. Those, to me, are signs of God’s presence. Knowing what beauty and joy feels like allows me to get used to them, and recognize them also in my prayer. And vice versa, getting to know them in prayer allows me a sense of what to look for in my science!

What are the biggest challenges that modern astronomers face today, and how does the Vatican Observatory address them? 

Astronomy has had remarkable progress in the last 70 years, based on strong government support for scientific research first within the United States and eventually throughout Western Europe, Japan, and now China as well. This support was bipartisan and steady across many changes in political and social trends. But that is now under threat, most immediately in the United States but also in other parts of the world.

The issue is not merely over money, but reflects a larger change in societal attitudes. Where once people might argue whether one religion or another was true, now the very concept of truth itself is under attack. Why is this happening? At least in part, I believe that many people fear dealing with uncomfortable truths that challenge their privilege, their personal comfort and sense of security. Ironically, both science and religion are both afflicted by this cultural attack, as they both insist on the existence of an objective truth.

The result of such attacks not only will affect how much money is available to do basic research; it also affects the social approval of those who work in science. To put it simply, just as small families have led parents to be less willing to let their children become celibate religious, so social prejudices against science will lead parents to be less likely to be proud of their children following careers that do not have obvious benefits that society now deems most important, such as earning a lot of money.

The existence of a Vatican Observatory stands strongly against this cultural trend. First, it insists that pure knowledge of God’s creation is worthwhile in and of itself. Secondly, it insists that having such knowledge, even if imperfectly, is possible and a worthwhile goal to one’s life. And finally, of course, the Vatican through its Observatory provides the stable resources to actually discover and disseminate that truth.

By standing up for science, and for truth, the Vatican Observatory is making a strong statement in a climate where such statements are in fact both needed and courageous.

How do you reconcile the scientific understanding of the cosmos with the theological teachings of the Church?

The simple response is to say that the Church teaches God created the universe; science tells me how it was done. More deeply, it is important to recognize that Scripture is a book about God, not science. There are many different descriptions in Scripture of the universe being created, some more detailed than others. They all represented the “best science of their day” — which is to day, they don’t agree with each other when it comes to the description of the creation events since the science being used to describe those events has changed radically over the thousand years that Scripture was written. But what remains constant is the role of God in that creation.

God is one. God is outside of creation, outside of space and time, and the author of space and time and the laws of creation. God creates deliberately, not by accident but by choice. God finds creation good, and creation in turn praises its Creator. And God creates in the light: we, His creatures, are encouraged to see and delight in what and how He has created. Indeed, the climax of the creation story in Genesis 1 is the Sabbath, the day when we are given the time and space to relax and enjoy that creation.

What first inspired you to pursue both astronomy and religious life and how did this unique combination shape your career?

As a child in Catholic schools in America, back in the 1950s and 1960s, I was encouraged to study science by the sisters and priests who taught me science. I never encountered any notion that faith and science must be opposed. And I encountered great religious role models during my university studies. MIT had a notable chaplain, the Paulist priest Robert Moran who arrived in 1974. Then, when I started my doctoral program in Arizona in 1975 I met both a scientist who was a former Salesian priest, Godfrey Sill, and another scientist who was a Jesuit priest, George Coyne. So I had plenty of examples to show me that one could be both a religious and a scientist.

I had never had a particular crisis of faith in my religion while growing up, but in my late 20s I did begin to question the value of my astronomy. As a result I spent two years as a volunteer in Africa with the US Peace Corps; there I learned that the people I met in Kenya, at least, saw value in my astronomy. From them I in turn discovered my love of teaching, and eventually felt a call to teach astronomy as a Jesuit.

Still, I did not really see a connection between religious life and a scientific career itself, any more than I would have seen a connection between being a scientist and being married. It was only after I entered the Jesuit order that I was encouraged during my formation to think deeply on the connection between loving creation, and loving its Creator. In particular, I recall a class during my philosophy studies where I read Athanasius’s On the Incarnation; then the connection suddenly became obvious.

Looking back, what do you feel is your most significant contribution to both the scientific community and the Vatican?

When I arrived at the Vatican Observatory in 1993 I discovered its significant collection of meteorites, not well cared for at that point. Meteoritics had been a love of mine since my early studies at MIT, and in my theoretical work on the evolution of small moons I had recognized that there was a need for accurate measurements of meteorite physical properties. Of course, such a program of measurements would take a long time to accomplish; it could not be easily done if one were a professor seeking tenure, or a researcher on a government grant with a specific goal and a three year renewal cycle. But at the Vatican Observatory I had neither constraint.

I was able to spend nearly twenty years to develop safe and reliable systems for making the measurements I thought were useful. This work was not at all glamorous; but it has been seen to be fundamental to a lot of the exploration of the asteroid belt, the source of those meteorites. And, unlike my previous theoretical work, it continues to be useful long after the theoretical models that inspired it have been superseded by better work.

Working in meteoritics also meant that the Vatican collection was once again available to the larger scientific community. I can trace a number of fellow scientists who have produced other important papers relying on both our data and our meteorites.

Something deeper is happening here as well, however. By deliberately making these admittedly mundane measurements, I was able to remind myself, and some of my colleagues, of why it is we actually do the work. I am no longer looking for glamour, or acclaim from my peers; rather, I am delighted to be a valuable collaborator in the larger work of understanding our solar system. I say, rightly, that I study creation for the love of its Creator. But I also do it for the joy of being a part of a larger community of meteoriticists, people whom I enjoy being with and sharing the things we have learned.

This sort of example, being a scientist for the knowledge rather than as a self-promoting career, affects the people we work with. And it presents the Vatican itself in a good light on a global stage. I have had the privilege of representing the Holy See at a United Nations conference on the peaceful uses of outer space in 2018; I’ve also served in as an officer in a number of international scientific organizations including the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and the Meteoritical Society. Our work inserts the good name of the Vatican in many diverse places where it might otherwise not be recognized.

Now that you’re in retirement, what will you do in the next future?  

I am retiring as director of the Specola, but I am not retiring from the Specola itself. I will continue to do science in the field of meteoritics, and I will continue my work presenting popular talks and writing. I have several ideas for books that I may write in the future! Furthermore, I will also have an important role to play for the future of the Specola as president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, which was established in America about forty years ago to support the work of the Vatican Observatory.

Most notably, it is the Foundation that built the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona in the early 1990s. Today the Foundation raises the money used to run the telescope. In addition, the Foundation provides financial support for many educational and public engagement efforts of the Vatican Observatory, including the summer schools organized and held by the Vatican Observatory at its headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, and special programs for scientists and educators organized by the Vatican Observatory within the United States.

Thus a lot of my outreach in the future will include fundraising efforts… both raising capital from major donors, and providing smaller donors a way that they can take part in the mission given to us by Pope Leo XIII so many years ago, to show the world how the Church supports good science.