With news about the Higgs boson particle, the so-called “God Particle,” that’s helping scientists understand how the universe was built, Br. Consolmagno says he’s explained multiple times that “No, the God Particle has nothing to do with God…”

Although not a particle physicist, Br. Consolmagno is often interviewed because of his role as a Vatican astronomer. He says some are surprised to hear that the Vatican supports an astronomical observatory, but that science and religion complement each other:

But the real reason we do science is in fact related to the reason why so many people ask us about things like the God Particle. The disciplines of science and religion complement each other in practical ways. For example, both are involved in describing things that are beyond human language and so must speak in metaphors. Not only is the ‘God Particle’ not a piece of God, it is also not really a ‘particle’ in the sense that a speck of dust is a particle. In both cases we use familiar images to try to illustrate an entity of great importance but whose reality is beyond our power to describe literally.

Read more of Br. Consolmagno’s commentary on the Higgs boson discovery on Catholic News Service and Catholic News Agency.

Among the most frequent of frequent flyers, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno racks up more than 100,000 miles per year, traveling between two dissimilar yet dramatically beautiful home bases:  the Vatican in Rome and the rugged desert of Tucson, Arizona. Consolmagno, staff astronomer and the curator of meteorites at the Vatican Observatory, travels nonstop, delivering 40 to 50 talks annually at universities, schools and parishes around the world.  Along the way, he’s learned a thing or two about how to travel like a star.  Brother Consolmagno sat down with the Chicago Tribune to share a few tips – everything from hidden gems at the Vatican to don’t-leave-home-without-it travel aids.  

Q: For those making a trip to the Vatican, what would you advise them to visit?

A: Well, everyone knows to see St. Peter’s and the Vatican Museum. But most people, when they go to the museum, rush ahead to see the Sistine Chapel and miss out on some wonderful artwork on the way. In particular, I recommend that when you first get into the museum, where the signs all point to the left, turn right instead. This gets you to the coffee shop and the Pinacoteca, the small but wonderful collection of paintings. I find the series of musical angels by Melozzo da Forli are particularly charming. But the best part is a series of eight astronomical paintings by Donato Creti, made in the early 1700s, which show the planets as seen through a telescope. They include the first color depiction of the great red spot on Jupiter. Another wonderful sight, which requires advance reservations, is to explore the Scavi, the excavations underneath St. Peter’s. (http://www.vatican.va)

Q: I understand you served in Kenya with the Peace Corps. What are some of your memories of that time?

A: That was 30 years ago, and I know that Kenya has changed a lot since then. What I remember most was how wonderful the people were and how much the countryside reminded me of a Tolkien painting — odd volcanic mountains and glorious but very strange vistas.

Q: What are your five favorite cities?

A. I am quite partial to the United Kingdom, so I would have to start with London, Liverpool and Glasgow. Tokyo is fascinating and continually surprising. I lived many years in Boston and I still love to visit there because it’s full of history, great museums and great food — and you can walk to nearly all of it. But lately my heart has been stolen by New York. As a Jesuit, I get to stay in parishes built to serve immigrants of the 19th century that are now in neighborhoods that are just wonderful to wander around. And, yes, I know that’s six cities.

Q: When you go away, what are some of your must-have items?

A: One trick I have never heard anyone else describe is that for long overnight flights, I put myself to sleep by listening to favorite audio books. Because I know the book well, it doesn’t keep me awake. And when I realize that I have skipped a few chapters, it relaxes me by letting me realize I really have gotten some sleep.

[Chicago Tribune]

After speaking at the Jesuit Brothers Institute on Jesuits in the Sciences, Br. Consolmagno took some time out to sit down with National Jesuit News and share the story of his vocation:

“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.

People often don’t realize that Galileo was in very good standing with the church and with many church leaders for decades before his trial in 1633, he said. Just a few weeks after he demonstrated his telescope on the Roman hillside, Galileo was “feted at the Roman College by the Jesuits, who were really impressed with the work he had done. At this point, he had burst onto the scene as one of the great intellectual lights of the 17th century,” Brother Consolmagno said.

“Even at his biggest point of trouble, Galileo was always a faithful son of the church — his two daughters were nuns — and he was friends with many of the people of Rome, including future popes,” he said.

Brother Consolmagno said the real reason that Galileo was eventually brought before the Inquisition and found guilty of suspected heresy is still a mystery. Numerous authors have proposed different findings and the trial is still “a great puzzle for historians,” he said.

Thanks to having many friends in high places, Galileo for years managed to evade any problems for maintaining that the earth revolves around the sun, the Jesuit said.
Galileo received permission, including from the pope’s personal censor, to publish his book, “Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems,” he said.

“He’s done everything right, he’s followed all the rules and suddenly out of nowhere he’s called to trial,” he said.

Galileo was willing and eager to make any corrections to the text, he said, but the inquisitors would not allow it. They were unable to find him guilty of heresy, however, “so they changed the verdict at the last minute to found guilty of vehement suspicion of heresy,” Brother Consolmagno said.

Whatever the political reasons were behind the trial and its verdict, he said the “terrible mistake” was that the church had used its religious authority for political ends.

Galileo’s reputation was restored in 1992 by a special Vatican commission established by Pope John Paul II.

[Catholic News Service]

Rory O'Driscoll/Winona Daily News

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a research astronomer and planetary scientist at the Vatican Observatory, seeks an understanding of God and the universe through prayer — and through his telescope.

Br. Consolmagno said one of the primary purposes of the observatory is to be an ongoing demonstration that the church is supportive of science and scientific research. Upon his appointment to the observatory in 1993, he said the first instruction he received was, “Guy, do good science.”

The supposed conflict between religion and science really doesn’t exist, Consolmagno said. “Science grew out of religion.”

Historically, the church has fostered science and the academic life, he pointed out, and churchmen have been in the forefront of scientific advancement.

“There is nothing in the Bible opposing evolution,” he said, “but there is something in the Bible against astrology.”

Biblical literalism is a recent development, not traditional Christianity, he said.

To apply a modern reading to a 2,000-year-old text “does violence to the text,” Consolmagno said, “and that’s not me saying it, it’s Augustine saying it.”

Read more about Consolmagno’s views on science and religion at the La Crosse Tribune.

Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, astronomer and curator of the Vatican Observatory’s meteorite collection, will be doing a live chat with the Arizona Daily Star newspaper this Wednesday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. Eastern.

The live “cosmic chat” with Br. Consolmagno will give people from all over the world a chance to hear him “make sense of the universe” and ask him questions.

Click this link to go to the chat with Consolmagno on Wednesday.

Brother Consolmagno  is the author of numerous books on the intersection of science and faith, including Brother Astronomer and God’s Mechanics.

Political humorist and comedian Stephen Colbert interviewed Brother Consolmagno on the satirical show and asked why the Vatican accepts the possibility of alien life.