(Vatican Radio) “We announce with joy that Pope Francis has had lunch with the Jesuit community of the Vatican Observatory. We are deeply moved!” This was the first of a series of messages posted on Twitter on Sunday by Jesuit astronomers of Castel Gandolfo – first in Italian and then in English, Spanish and French. The Vatican Observatory has its headquarters in the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo, while the Pontifical Palace, directly above the apartment of the Pope, continues to host the domes with telescopes. But the observations for some time have been being made at the new research centre, the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), located in the United States, in Tucson, at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona.
Vatican Radio’s Fausta Speranza spoke with the director of the Vatican Observatory, Father José Gabriel Funes (pictured), about Pope Francis’ visit to one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world.
Father José Gabriel Funes(JF): It was a very beautiful day for the us Jesuits who work at the Vatican Observatory. We greeted the Pope, then we took him to see some of the places we have here at Castel Gandalfo. The Pope saw some ancient books – the most precious ones we have – such as, for example, a copy of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus, the Principia of Isaac Newton, and La riforma del calendario gregoriano [“The Reform of the Gregorian Calendar”] and the Tabelle [“The Tables”] of Father Clavio, who took part in that reform. He visited the meteorite laboratory, where he looked in the microscope at a meteorite that had fallen at Buenos Aires. Brother Consolmagno, the curator, had prepared this little surprise. At the end of lunch, the Pope signed the parchment we have with the signatures of all the Popes from Pius XI up to today, to Pope Francis. It was truly very beautiful, and we are very happy.