Tag Archives: L’Osservatore Romano

Social Media

The daily Twitter referendum or lottery

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Twitter is truly an odd, albeit interesting, beast when it comes to “following” and “followers” for those of us anyway whose numbers aren’t up in the gazillions on either side of the equation and we have at least a general sense of  plus or minus changes.
Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn, where one’s number of “friends” and “connections” seem more stable (sure you lose the odd one but generally gain them at least incrementally), Twitter is more akin, at least in my experience, to a daily (if not hourly) referendum or maybe lottery. I’m really not sure which.

While I like social media analytics and trying to figure out how algorithms are applied to determine the feed of tweets in my stream, and find engagement metrics as truly fascinating as the next guy who went through high school years ago loathing mathematics and majoring in history in university, I really find it hard to see direct correlations in terms of the numbers sometimes. Does losing a “follower” on Twitter mean you’ve offended someone? Or even worse bored them? Or maybe they just wanted to round-off their numbers or make room to follow someone else?

Anyway. Below are some of the folks we follow on Twitter. For today anyway. My very unscientific analysis of how I wound up following these folks, based on something like a cursory glance at the list, goes like this. Some are personal friends or former colleagues I’ve known for years. Some are related to places where I have previously worked and lived. A disproportionate number are Catholic, but a good number are simply religion writers in general or journalists.  Add in some union activists. Chris Rutkowski, research co-ordinator for UFOlogy Research of Manitoba (URM) by night, communications officer in media relations with the communications marketing office of the University of Manitoba by day, is my go-to UFO guy, while Mark Boslough, an Albuquerque, New Mexico physicist, is a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories and an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. He also a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and member of the group New Mexicans for Science and Reason. Asteroid 73520 Boslough (2003 MB1) is named after him.

Follow me, tweet me and retweet me. Go ahead. Make me viral. Make my day.
You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

Following

So Bad So Good
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The most interesting historical photographs. Follow, discuss, share!

Amy Welborn
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Catholic,writer,reader,traveler. Blog: New book: ADVENTURES IN ASSISI:

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Author of (award-winning) SHELF MONKEY [], (award-nominated) HUSK [], and an assortment of quality sweets.

CJR

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News, research and commentary about Canadian journalism. Tweets by .

Francis X. Rocca
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Rome bureau chief for Catholic News Service

The Tablet
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The Tablet is a weekly Catholic journal which has been reporting on events of significance for more than 170 years.

Dr William Pelletier
@BibleScienceGuy

Mathematician. IT company vice-president. Bible-Science blogger. Sportsman, Orienteer, Camper. Husband, father of 7.

maurice emelu
@Revemelu

Catholic clergy, TV host, author, journalist, retreat preacher, African content producer for EWTN and President, Gracia Vobis Ministries,…

Jorge Barrera
@JorgeBarrera follows you

Journalist/Periodista, dabbler, occasional absinthe sipper, follower of threads. 6132942011 Email: jbarrera (at) aptn.ca; fax: 6135671834

Rev. Fidelis Omeaku
@RevFICO follows you

Catholic Priest, Gospel Artist and Follower of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Co-Heir of God’s Kingdom and son of our Blessed Mother Mary.

Jeff Mcinnes

Protected Tweets
@herbalizer306 follows you

Admin for the private FB group Thompson Confidential. Original admin of Thompson Talk. What a shitty list of accolades

Lisa Winters Evasiuk
@greta202 follows you

Someday maybe I will write the story of my life. Maybe.

Steve Lambert
@stevelambertwpg

Reporter with The Canadian Press. President of the Manitoba legislature press gallery. Music geek. Distance runner. Hacks-and-Flacks street…

Mark Boslough
@MarkBoslough

Physicist and skeptic. Tweets about science, asteroids, and climate change. Annoys deniers.

ninaburleigh
@ninaburleigh follows you

Journalist , bestselling author. Anywhere on the Med. And Washington, D.C.

John Baert
@JohnBaert follows you

MGEU Special Projects Officer. Views expressed are mine. Jets, Bears, Blue Jays, 76ers, Chelsea.

Tim Fontaine
@anishinaboy follows you

Ojibway factotum. Associate Producer at . contributor. Tweets about bannock. Often.

The Times
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Prince Edward County’s Independent News Source

Ruth Gledhill
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Loving life one day at a time. Contrib Ed & student . Reviewer .

Anne D’Innocenzio

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National Retail Writer for The Associated Press. Foodie & theater lover. Having fun with standup comedy. Manhattan. Email me story pitches…

Chris Rutkowski
@ufologyresearch

UFO guy, media guy, writer

Rachel Zoll

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@rzollAP

national religion writer since 2001. b. Salem, Mass. rzoll@ap.org

Michael Paulson

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@MichaelPaulson

National religion reporter at The New York Times. Living in New York; missing New England.

Religion NewsService

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@RNS

Religion News Service reporters, columnists and bloggers cover news & views where faith, spirituality and nonbelief meet society, culture, politi…

Sarah Pulliam Bailey

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@spulliam follows you

On vacation! Soon: religion reporter. Amateur violist, cook, board gamer. spulliam@gmail.com

Religion Newswriters
@ReligionReport

Religion Newswriters Association provides networking, tools and training for reporters covering religion. We envision fair and informed religion…

GetReligion
@GetReligion

GetReligion is a national and global journalism site focusing on how the mainstream press covers religion news in politics, entertainment, business…

ChristianCinema.com
@ChristianCinema

Since 1999, we’ve been connecting audiences with Christian movies and filmmakers. Now over 4000 titles that will impact lives via DVD, Rental, VOD…

Ted Andkilde
@andkilde follows you

photographer, malcontent, new dad, old soul

Luke Coppen
@LukeCoppen

Editor of the Catholic Herald

Damian Thompson

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@holysmoke

Associate editor at The Spectator specialising in religion and classical music. Once described as ‘A blood-crazed ferret’ by the Church Times

Dwight Longenecker
@dlongenecker1

Bob Jones U, then Oxford and an Anglican priest, now Catholic priest, blogger, broadcaster, Author of Romance of Religion and fifteen…

Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
@fatherz

Catholic Priest, Blogger, Columnist –

Raymond Arroyo
@RaymondArroyo

Anchor, The World Over Live on EWTN Thurs.8PM ET., EWTNews Director, New York Times Best Selling author, journalist, producer, husband, dad.…

L’Osservatore Romano
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USA edition of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, now printed by Our Sunday Visitor. Follow for latest Vatican…

Fr. Robert Barron
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I am a Catholic priest, author, and creator and host of the award-winning documentary series CATHOLICISM

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Sharing our Catholic Faith online & in print …. Looking at news & trends of today through Catholic eyes.

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Vatican media: CTV, Osservatore Romano, Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Radio, Press Office, Vatican website, V.I.S.

Catholic News Svc
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Salt + Light
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Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation is a charitable organization devoted to spreading the light of Christ through media.

Laurie Goodstein

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New York Times National Religion Correspondent. Covering the reverent and irreverent since 1993.

Crux
@Crux

Covering all things Catholic, from Church doctrine to personal faith. Featuring expert Vatican coverage by and edited by …

John L. Allen, Jr.

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Vatican expert, journalist, author and pug lover. Associate editor at Boston Globe and also at Crux, covering all things Catholic.

Paul Andersen
@PaulAndersen6 follows you

Producer for Shaw TV in Thompson, Flin Flon & The Pas. I only have two talents in Life: Mini Putt and Bubble Hockey. Views are my own.

Shaw TV Thompson
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Shaw TV Thompson brings your local community content to you. We represent your local community programming in Northern Manitoba

Abigail Bimman
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Videographer & anchor for CTV Kitchener.

Journalism.co.uk
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News, digital tools and tips for journalists and publishers from . Contact or . Tel: +44 (0)1273 384290

Thompson Citizen
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50 years and counting as Thompson’s source for local news.

Steve Ladurantaye
@sladurantaye

Government and news at Twitter Canada.

Neil MacCarthy
@neilmaccarthy

Com. Dir., Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto. Follow for official feed. I’m that church media guy, smiling most of the time. Tweets are my own.

Jeanette Kimball
@dancewithsun7 follows you

Mediator, conciliator, cedar, bamboo and silver flute player. Peacemaker and camera maven.

Ryan Flanagan
@flanaganryan follows you

News dude. Sports fan. Pop culture noun. I’m a web writer at .

Scott Edmonds
@tsedmonds follows you

Vice-president, Canada, The Newspaper Guild-CWA, Writer, multi-media journalist, Formerly with The Canadian Press

And (did I happen to mention?) you can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22
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Astronomy, Planetary Science

Looking for a last-minute Christmas present for that hard-to-buy-for Catholic loved one? How about Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? and Other Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory by Vatican astronomers Guy Consolmagno and Paul Mueller

popeextraguyconsolmagnoandpaulmuellerbaptizeextra

In his morning homily last May 12 at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis told his mostly clerical audience that they should keep an open mind to anyone or anything – seeking God. “If – for example – tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here … Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them … And one says, ‘But I want to be baptized!’ What would happen?” he asked parishioners. “When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, ‘No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, let’s do it this way….’”

Truth be told, while Pope Francis may have expressed it a bit unexpectedly and a bit more casually in the vernacular than usual, there is a history to this line of thought in the Vatican, especially among the religious who are astronomers at the world-renowned Vatican Observatory. Surprised? Of course, you’re not. Not if you’re Catholic, anyway. Everyone else? Yeah, well that’s a different solar system you non-Catholics are in, I daresay, when it comes to the thinking from the best scientific minds in Rome. And Pope Francis. Protestants come home!

In 2008, Father José Gabriel Funes, the director of the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world, wrote in L’Osservatore Romano that “believing in the possible existence of extraterrestrial life is not opposed to Catholic doctrine” in an article entitled “The Alien is my Brother.”

He said that since astronomers even Catholic ones – believe that the universe is made up of 100 billion galaxies, so it is not reasonable to discount that some could have planets. “How could it not be left out that life developed elsewhere?” he asked? “As a multiplicity of creatures exist on earth, so there could be other beings, also intelligent, created by God. This does not contrast with our faith because we cannot put limits on the creative freedom of God. [According to] Saint Francis, if we consider earthly creatures as ‘brother’ and ‘sister,’ why cannot we also speak of an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would therefore be a part of creation.”

Two years later in 2010, fellow Vatican Observatory research astronomer and planetary scientist Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno wrote a pamphlet, Intelligent Life in the Universe? Catholic belief and the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life, originally published by the Catholic Truth Society in London. In it, he explored a number of questions, including whether aliens exist, and if they do and have souls, could they be baptized?

“The limitless universe might even include other planets with other beings created by that same loving God,” Consolmagno wrote. “The idea of there being other races and other intelligences is not contrary to traditional Christian thought. There is nothing in Holy Scripture that could confirm or contradict the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.”

Fast-forward four years. Consolmagno, the co-ordinator for public relations at the Vatican Observatory, located on the grounds of the pope’s  summer residence at Castel Gandolfo in Italy, less than 24 kilometres southeast of Rome, is back with another book, Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?’  and Other Questions from the Astronomers’ In-box at the Vatican Observatory, co-authored with Father Paul Mueller, a fellow astronomer at the Vatican Observatory, who is a philosopher of science and serves as superior of the Jesuit community at Castel Gandolfo.  Its dependent research centre, the Vatican Observatory Research Group, is hosted by Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona in Tucson and operates the 1.8m Alice P. Lennon Telescope with its Thomas J. Bannan Astrophysics Facility, known together as the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT),  located at the Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO) in southeastern Arizona.

A graduate of St. Xavier Jesuit High School in Cincinnati, Mueller holds a B.S. in physics from Boston University and an M.A. in philosophy from Loyola University of Chicago. He also holds M.Div and S.T.M. degrees in theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley and a PhD in the philosophy of science from the University of Chicago.

In his PhD dissertation, Mueller provided a translation and commentary on Marin Mersenne’s Questions Théologiques, Physiques, Morales et Mathématiques (1634), and explored how practices and concepts of early modern science were informed and influenced by practices and concepts from biblical textual criticism.

Consolmagno is from Detroit and a graduate of Beverly Hills’ Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Catholic elementary school and University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy. He obtained his Bachelor of Science undergraduate in 1974 and the following year his Master of Science graduate degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Consolmagno recevied his PhD in Planetary Science from the University of Arizona in 1978. From 1978-80, he was a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the Harvard College Observatory, and from 1980-1983 continued as a postdoctorial fellow and lecturer at MIT.

In 1983 he left MIT to join the United States Peace Corps, where he served for two years in Kenya teaching physics and astronomy. On his return to the United States in 1985, he became an assistant professor of physics at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, where he taught until his entry into the Jesuit order in 1989.

He took vows as a Jesuit brother in 1991, and studied philosophy and theology at Loyola University Chicago, and physics at the University of Chicago before his assignment to the Vatican Observatory in 1993.

Consolmagno is also the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Castel Gandolfo, one of the largest in the world, and the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation in Tuscon.  His research explores the connections between meteorites and asteroids, and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. In 1996, he spent six weeks collecting meteorites with a team on the blue ice of Antarctica.  In 2000 he was honored by the IAU for his contributions to the study of meteorites and asteroids with the naming of asteroid 4597 Consolmagno.

An avid reader of science fiction,  Consolmagno earlier this year received the Carl Sagan Award from the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, the first clerygyman to ever win the award, for his popular writing and speaking as a planetary scientist communicating to the general public.

Consolmagno says he has no doubt that life exists elsewhere in the universe, and when we finally do discover it, the news will come as no big surprise.

“The general public is going to be, ‘Oh, I knew that. I knew it was going to be there,’”  Consolmagno told Catholic News Service (CNS) prior to a presentation at a NASA and Library of Congress symposium on preparing for the discovery of life in the universe last Sept. 19.

You can watch a 1min25sec brief Catholic News Service (CNS) clip, “God and outer space” from  an interview with Consolmagno on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ARjTJZVw_o#t=59

The Vatican Observatory Foundation’s first Faith and Astronomy Workshop for clergy, religious, and laypeople working in parish education, is set for Jan. 19-23 in Tucson.

You can also follow me on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/jwbarker22

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