Light-Years from the Vatican

I can’t recall the first time I read Clarke’s “The Star”, but I do remember how I felt, experiencing this story about a Catholic priest returning home after discovering a site left by an alien race that knew it was doomed.

Even though I had stepped away from belief in my early teens, I was struck by the Jesuit main character. Here was a Catholic — in the future — doing science. And here was me, living in a world that had (at the time) convinced me that science and Catholicism were incompatible. Despite the story describing the Jesuit’s loss of faith, it became an integral part of my journey back to Catholicism many years later. The story became a door through which I reconciled scientific exploration and the Christian worldview.

I named this blog from the first line in that story:

“It is three thousand light-years to the Vatican.”
— Arthur C. Clarke, “The Star”

The picture at the top of the site is the Phoenix Nebula, “a tenuous shell of gas surrounding a single star” – the star of the story.

I set this site up several years ago. At the time, I had a vision of what I wanted to write here. And now, I’m ready to begin.

I want this space to explore the conversation between Catholicism and science fiction. I’ve long loved both spheres. Since reading “The Star” so many years ago, I’ve seen bits of that conversation appear again and again. It continues to fascinate me, even when one challenges the other.

I want to write about meaning, mystery, and the way good stories – especially speculative ones – brush up against eternal truths.

Here, I’ll reflect on stories, review non-fiction and fiction, muse on theology sparked by reading, and write occasional essays inspired by all of it. If you find something here that resonates, I’m grateful. If not, that’s okay too.

There’s space enough in the cosmos.

Just in time for his feast day, Julie and I read a book about St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas Aquinas: The Dumb Ox by G. K. Chesterton. The book was mostly about philosophy, and what Aquinas brought back to the table. Thoughts like this:

Thus, even those who appreciate the metaphysical depth of Thomism in other matters have expressed surprise that he does not deal at all with what many now think the main metaphysical question; whether we can prove that the primary act of recognition of any reality is real. The answer is that St. Thomas recognised instantly, what so many modern sceptics have begun to suspect rather laboriously; that a man must either answer that question in the affirmative, or else never answer any question, never ask any question, never even exist intellectually, to answer or to ask.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Some awe for a Thursday:

That nifty graph shows light from a star being blocked (so very slightly) by a planet crossing in front of it. These measurements were taken by NASA’s Webb Telescope, which is possibly the niftiest thing ever. The star is 41 light years away and is in the constellation “Octans”, which can be seen from Earth only while standing in the southern hemisphere. The planet is called LHS 457 b (was “Planet Karl Urban” already taken?), is Earth-sized, and rocky.

It wasn’t that long ago that we could only assume the existence of planets outside of our solar system but now, as of this writing, we’ve found 5,241 of them.

These two episodes of the A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast were very interesting to me. Julie selected two movies to compare and contrast: Thelma and Louise (1991) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1955). They are both considered (by some) to be “feminist movies”, yet they are so different.

You can listen on the Good Story website or subscribe at most of the places folks listen to podcasts; just search your favorite podcast app for A Good Story is Hard to Find.