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Grave doubts resolved

21 Dec 2008 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday's reading from the Letter to the Romans speaks of the revelation of a mystery kept secret for long ages. After DNA testing resolved the 400-year mystery surrounding the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish bishop who organized the successful search for the remains suggested that the discovery could help resolve tensions between science and religion. "During [Copernicus'] own lifetime, there were Catholics and Protestants who sympathized with him, but also those from both churches who rejected his vision of the world," said Rev. Jacek Jezierski, an auxiliary bishop in Poland's Warmia archdiocese. "The conflict between interpretations of Holy Scripture and empirical observation resulted from a great misunderstanding, which we've gradually moved away from." The breakthrough came after the discovery of two hairs in a book with notes made by Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy. DNA from the hair matched that of a skeleton in an unmarked grave found four years ago in the chancel of Frombork Cathedral in northern Poland, where Copernicus had served as a priest. Source: Articles by Kate Connolly for Guardian.co.uk and by Ecumenical News International

dna nicolaus copernicus science and religion jacek jezierski astronomy frombork cathedral
Do you see what astronomers see?

06 Jan 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Tracking a bright star in the night sky, “magi from the east” arrive on the scene in this Sunday’s gospel to pay homage to the newborn King. Modern-day astronomers, using sophisticated instruments to track the same sort of celestial bodies, recently made the surprising discovery of a healthy planetary system orbiting a nearby star very similar to our own sun.Scientists were surprised by the unexpected discovery of five planets—ranging in size from two to six times the Earth's mass—orbiting the Sun-like star Tau Ceti, only 12 light years away. As well as being the nearest system to the Earth with a Sun-like star, it includes one planet that is orbiting in the star's habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface.Mysteries abound in the universe, as in the church’s life of faith. The fact that Gentiles were coheirs and copartners with Jews in the promise of Jesus, for example, was a “mystery . . . made known to me by revelation,” and “was not made known to people of other generations,” writes the Pauline author of the Letter to the Ephesians. Is there intelligent life on other planets in the universe? That is a mystery not yet made known to our generation, and it remains to be seen if the answer will be revealed to some future generation.Homily hint: Some Christians consider any talk of possible life elsewhere in the universe to be close to blasphemy because it challenges their view of creation. But the Catholic Church teaches that the discoveries of modern science simply reveal aspects of the mystery of God’s creation and in no way contradict a faith perspective. Encourage believers to take an active interest in scientific research. God gave us intelligence, but it is up to us to develop it! Source: An article by Stuart Gary for Science Online

science and religion astronomy planets life on other planets tau ceti
Rosetta spacecraft hopes to unlock comet’s secrets

10 Aug 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

This Sunday’s readings suggest we need to look closely and listen carefully to natural wonders for signs of God. For millennia humankind thought comets were ominous portends from God, but modern science has made it possible to look closer. After a 10-year journey, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft this week pulled alongside a comet it will travel with and explore up close for the next year.Over the coming months, Rosetta and its comet, called C-G for short, will plunge together toward the sun. In November, a small 220-pound lander is to leave the spacecraft, set down on the comet, and harpoon itself to the surface.That will be the first time a spacecraft has gently landed on a comet. “It’s really going to get down and scratch the surface to get the most pristine material that we can from the surface of the comet,” said Matthew Taylor, the mission’s project scientist.At this point, the comet and its shadowing spacecraft are more than 330 million miles from the sun (more than three times as far out as Earth), traveling at 35,000 miles per hour. With the firing of the final thruster, Rosetta was a mere 60 miles from the comet’s surface. “The key thing is we’re rendezvousing and escorting right in alongside the comet for an extended period, for over a year,” Taylor said.Comets, made of ice, dust, and rock, are frozen leftovers from the formation of the solar system. Rosetta is named after the Rosetta Stone, the engraved block that was crucial in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, and scientists hope that the spacecraft’s observations will offer important clues to how the solar system came together 4.5 billion years ago. Rosetta’s lander, Philae, is named after the island in the River Nile where the Rosetta Stone was found.Homily hint: The impulse to explore, to discover, to explain is at the core of social innovation. The knowledge gained only deepens the mystery of creation. At the same time, the ancient biblical truths remain vibrant as ever, giving us the wisdom that can inform all our modern explorations. Source: An article by Kenneth Chang for The New York Times

science and religion
One of physics' bright lights passes

01 Feb 2015 - Preaching the News for Sunday

In this Sunday’s first reading, Moses promises the people a prophet for the age to come. Physicist Charles Townes had sufficient prophetic vision in the 1950s to imagine a machine capable of emitting an intense beam of light, what he and co-workers later named a laser. Townes, whose Nobel Prize-winning invention spawned advances in every area of modern life, died Tuesday at the age of 99. Homily hint: Townes once said he regarded the revelation that led him to invent the laser as a sign of the interplay between spiritual belief and scientific inquiry. In 2005, he received the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities. Encourage young people of faith to integrate faith and science in their own studies—we need people of vision to lead future generations. For more on Townes and the laser, see: Charles Townes, Nobel laureate and laser inventor, dies at 99; Nobel laureate Charles Townes, laser co-creator, dies at 99

science and religion physics lasers