Newsgroup: it.scienza.divulgazione
Titolo: Papa smantella osservatorio

 
 
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3307586.ece
Science bows to theology as the Pope dismantles Vatican observatory
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 04 January 2008
Science is to make way for diplomacy at the Pope's summer residence, with 
the dismantling of the astronomical observatory that has been part of
Castel 
Gandolfo, south of Rome, for more than 75 years. The Pope needs more room
to 
receive diplomats so the telescopes have to go.
The eviction of the astronomers and their instruments, reported by the 
Italian daily Corriere della Sera, and their removal to a disused convent
a 
mile away, marks the end of a period of intimacy between popes and 
priest-astronomers that has lasted well over a century.
Father Jose G Funes, the present director of the observatory, known as the 
Specola Vaticana, insisted that there was no sinister significance in the 
move. "It is not a downgrading of science in the Vatican," he said. "To 
remain within the palace would have had only a symbolic significance, 
whereas where we are going we will be even more comfortable. Nearly 
everybody is in agreement with the move even though I realise that every 
change produces disquiet." His predecessor, Father George Coyne, said, "I 
agree completely with Father Funes. We have discussed the issues many
times 
together and with the rest of our Jesuit staff."
But symbolism is exactly what close watchers of Pope Benedict XVI see in
the 
move: confirmation of the view that he is far less receptive to what 
scientists – including scientists in dog collars – want to tell him than
his 
recent predecessors. He has, for example, spoken in favour of intelligent 
design, in flat contradiction of the views of the observatory's former 
director.
The popes have been conducting a love-hate affair with astronomy ever
since 
Galileo. Of obvious interest to them, for example, are the efforts of 
astronomers to pin down exactly which wandering star led the three wise
men 
to the stable in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.
The latest attempt was published by Grant Matthews, professor of
theoretical 
astrophysicist at America's University of Notre Dame. The "star in the 
East", he says, could have been Mars, Jupiter and Saturn aligned in the 
constellation Pisces on 20 February 6BC, or Jupiter, the moon and Saturn 
aligned in Aries on 17 April of the same year, or Jupiter and Venus
closely 
aligned in Leo 11 years later. The middle possibility is the strongest, he 
believes.
But it was the more mundane question of the reform of the calendar that 
first induced the popes to give house room to the star-gazers in the late 
16th century. "Pope Gregory XIII ordered a tower to be erected... and to
be 
fitted out with the greatest and best instruments of the time," Pope Leo 
XIII wrote in 1891. "There he held the meetings of the learned men to whom 
the reform of the calendar had been entrusted ... When touched by the rays 
of the sun that are allowed to enter from above, the designs demonstrate
the 
error of the old reckoning."
Another rapprochement occurred in the 18th century, but the latest phase
in 
the relationship was initiated by Leo XIII himself in 1891. In 1935 the 
observatory was moved out of Rome to the summer palace to escape the
growing 
atmospheric pollution of the capital.
In 1978, Father Coyne was appointed director of the Specola Vaticana. He 
held the job throughout the long reign of Pope John Paul II. The
theological 
conservatism of the Polish pope cohabited oddly with an enthusiastic 
acceptance of the findings of science. In a speech in 1996, for instance,
he 
came close to accepting the theory of evolution.
Father Coyne's tenure did not long outlast the reign of John Paul. When 
Coyne retired in August 2006, it was rumoured that hostility to
intelligent 
design had been his undoing. Benedict's rejection of the Enlightenment,
and 
the reign of scientific truth which it ushered in, is well established.
And now Father Coyne's former domain is to be dismantled. The two 
astronomical domes which crown the roof of the lakeside palace are to
remain 
– to be transformed into museums. 
 
-- 
Cieli sereni & bui!
Bruno Moretti IK2WQA, CICAP member
IARA, SETI ITALIA Team G. Cocconi
Sezione di Ricerca Radioastronomia UAI
http://www.geocities.com/priapus_dionysos/bsih.html
Foto e filmati radioastronomia
http://www.geocities.com/priapus_dionysos/Foto.html
questo articolo e` stato inviato via web dal servizio gratuito 
http://www.newsland.it/news
 segnala gli abusi ad 
ab...@newsland.it

 Presidente UAI
-- 
