Father Copernicus seems to have been so self-effacing that he was not considered well-known enough for a marked grave. He did not change the world as Christ did, but he changed the way the world is understood.
On this day of the Summer Solstice, I think of how much I enjoy the calendar published by the Vatican Observatory, with beautiful photographs of the planets taken with its telescopes at its headquarters on the grounds of the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
The scientists were jubilant, as men are when dividing the spoils.
Feb. 12, 2009 is the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin. By coincidence it is also Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, but the media hype I have seen has been reserved mostly for Darwin.
One subject I often end up discussing with friends and acquaintances is the apparent conflict between religion and science.
Stephen Hawking in his A Brief History Of Time taught the world that given enough time, monkeys hammering away on typewriters could type out a Shakespeare sonnet.
In its pastoral constitution, Gaudium et spes, Vatican II said, "Believers and unbelievers agree almost unanimously that all things on earth should be ordained to man as to their center and summit."
