Telescopes as Instruments of Peace

“Astronomy taught us our insignificance in nature”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Humans have looked to the stars since the beginning of time. Stargazing is the great equalizer. Nobody owns the skies, although in recent times, certain deluded powers and corporations sure seem to think that they do. We, that is humanity and the kingdom of nature and the animal world, all look at the same sky and depending on our coordinates, are guided by the same stars and constellations. We take comfort in the sky- especially those whose spiritual beliefs see the sky as the location of the home of God. The heavens are both literal and metaphorical, for those of this belief. And as such, telescopes are instruments of peace and wonder at a time in our history when we have never needed both more. That point was recently driven home by the recent translation on the gilded marble plating on a 19th century telescope at the Vatican Observatory in Rome. As a member of the Vatican Observatory Foundation and a subscriber to the Sacred Space Bog, I read about the translation in a recent Newsletter, and I was utterly moved by the words and how they are every bit as relevant today (perhaps even moreso) as they were in 1892. NOT sharing these powerful and thought-provoking words was not on option.

Here is the short backstory: This telescope was first installed on the on the walls of the Vatican in 1892 as part of a program to make a photographic map of the sky. Fifty years later, the project still wasn’t complete but 1942 was the middle of the Second World War and the astronomers were afraid that Rome might be bombed, and the telescope destroyed. So Pope Pius xii arranged to have the dome built in the middle of built in the middle of the Papal Gardens where the Vatican Observatory had moved just 10 years earlier. The marble slab between the first one was inscribed in Latin but the gold leaf was difficult to read. But the wonderful words have now not only been deciphered but recently translated by Jesuit priest, Father Justin Wittington. Thank you, Father Justin, for giving us this gift:

” Leo XII Supreme Pontiff, as a patron and general enlarger of the sciences, to the deeper exploration of heaven. At great expense prepared and built this most fitting seat here for the joint protection of optics and photographic art, in the 14th years of his pontificate”.

Followed by these words, the most meaningful and profound of all:

” Pius XII Supreme Pontiff great patron of both peace and sciences in the 50th year since the restoration of the Specola Vaticana ordered the instrument to be transferred here from the Lenonine rampart on Vatican Hill and a new tower to be raised most fitting for the observation of the stars in the 3rd year of his pontificate, a work of peace while the entire world was aflame with war.”

And that is why the telescope is both an instrument of wonder and peace. These words of power, beauty and hope, resonate every bit as much today as they did in 1892. Our current world is aflame with war, hatred and division and peace sometimes seems elusive. But we must not lose hope and as we turn our instruments of peace to the “heavens”. we must continue to use our science and technology to further explore the heavens and find comfort and solace for our souls.