Archive for June, 2011

John B. Guida, S.J. (Photograph from the Woodstock College Archives): Born in Italy, Guida taught philosophy at Georgetown from 1863 to 1868.

A photograph of the Georgetown Jesuit who was jailed after being mistaken for John Wilkes Booth is only one of about 80 Civil War items on display at the Georgetown University’s Lauinger Library through the month of June.

The items are from the library’s Special Collections Research Center and from the Woodstock College Archives.

Authorities released John B. Guida, S.J., a philosophy professor, once Booth (who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln) was found.

“On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Special Collections Research Center wanted to tell the story of the war’s impact on Georgetown and its faculty and students,” explained University Archivist Lynn Conway, who put the exhibition together. “It is a story of perseverance and survival.

Top Renaissance scientists and scholars gathered on a grassy hill overlooking Rome one starry spring night 400 years ago to gaze into a unique innovation by Galileo Galilei: the telescope.

“This was really an exciting event. This was the first time that Galileo showed off his telescope in public to the educated people of Rome, which was the center of culture in Italy at that time,” said Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, Vatican astronomer, as he stood on the same knoll.

Today, the grassy hill is part of the American Academy in Rome, which celebrated its connection to Galileo earlier this year with a number of events that included a discussion of faith and science with Brother Consolmagno.

The Renaissance men gathered on the Janiculum hill included Jesuit scholars, such as Jesuit Father Christopher Clavius, who helped devise the Gregorian calendar 40 years earlier.

Brother Consolmagno told CNS that the unveiling of the telescope was so significant because “this is the first time that science is done with an instrument. It’s not something that just any philosopher could look at. You had to have the right tool to be able to be able to see it,” because one’s own eyes were no longer enough.

“People then wanted to look for themselves and see if they were seeing the same things Galileo was seeing,” he said.

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In collaboration with the Apostleship of Prayer, a group of young Jesuits led by Jesuit Father Phil Hurley, will be giving retreats this summer for young people in the mid-Atlantic States.

Called “Hearts on Fire” the retreat program is based on the tenets of Ignatian Spirituality, and hopes to introduce practical ways of connecting faith with daily life, as well as spiritually renew the participants through a series of talks and break-out sessions. From June 17 to July 16, the retreats will be in: Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; Charlotte, NC; Baltimore and Richmond, VA.

For more information about attending this retreat, please visit the Apostleship of Prayer.