rigorousintuition.ca

Gerald Fitzgerald, founder of the Congregation of the Servants of the Paraclete, is an interesting priest. Some of his wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Fitzgerald_(priest)

...Although Fitzgerald started the Servants of the Paraclete to assist priests who were struggling with alcohol and substance abuse problems, he soon began receiving priests who had sexually abused minors. Initially, Fitzgerald attempted to treat such priests using the same spiritual methods that he used with his other "guests". By 1948, Fitzgerald had set a policy whereby he refused to take priests who were sexually attracted to young people. In a letter sent to a priest in 1948 Fitzgerald said “It is now a fixed policy of our house to refuse problem cases that involve abnormalities of sex.” The policy was changed, probably at the insistence of bishops, because Fr. Gerald’s letters reveal that he had indeed offered help to several priests with such sexual problems in the years between 1948 and his death in 1969. In 1957, Fitzgerald wrote of the Paracletes’ intent to stop taking sexual abusers. “Experience has taught us these men are too dangerous to the children of the parish and neighborhood for us to be justified in receiving them here.”

Despite his reluctant acceptance of sexually abusive priests, Fitzgerald became increasingly convinced that such priests could not be cured, could not be trusted to maintain celibacy and should be laicized even against their will.

Moreover, Fitzgerald opposed vehemently the return of sexual abusers to duties as parish priests. Although some bishops refused to hire sexually abusive priests based on Fitzgerald's refusal to recommend them for parish duties, others ignored Fitzgerald's advice. In general, it appears that bishops chose to ignore Fitzgerald's recommendations, preferring to rely on the advice of medical and psychological experts who asserted that treatment was feasible.
[edit]
Warnings to the Church hierarchy

Over the next two decades, Fitzgerald wrote regularly to bishops in the United States and to Vatican officials, including the pope, of his opinion that many sexual abusers in the priesthood could not be cured and should be laicized immediately.[2]

For example, in a 1952 letter to Bishop Robert Dwyer of Reno, Fitzgerald wrote:

"I myself would be inclined to favor laicization for any priest, upon objective evidence, for tampering with the virtue of the young, my argument being, from this point onward the charity to the Mystical Body should take precedence over charity to the individual, [...] Moreover, in practice, real conversions will be found to be extremely rare [...] Hence, leaving them on duty or wandering from diocese to diocese is contributing to scandal or at least to the approximate danger of scandal."[3]

In 1957 Fitzgerald wrote to the bishop of Manchester, New Hampshire:
"We are amazed to find how often a man who would be behind bars if he were not a priest is entrusted with the cura animarum."[2][4]

In a letter written in 1957 to Archbishop Byrne, his ecclesiastical sponsor and co-founder of the Paracletes, Fitzgerald wrote:

“May I beg your excellency to concur and approve of what I consider a very vital decision on our part - that we will not offer hospitality to men who have seduced or attempted to seduce little boys or girls. These men Your Excellency are devils and the wrath of God is upon them and if I were a bishops I would tremble when I failed to report them to Rome for involuntary laicization....It is for this class of rattlesnake I have always wished the island retreat - but even an island is too good for these vipers of whom the Gentle master said - it were better they had not been born - this is an indirect way of saying damned, is it not? When I see the Holy Father I am going to speak of this class to his Holiness.”

In April 1962, Fitzgerald prepared a report at the request of the Congregation of the Holy Office in which he discussed the various types of sexual problems of priests, including sexual abuse of minors.

In April 1962, Fitzgerald wrote a five-page response to a query from the Vatican's Congregation of the Holy Office about "the tremendous problem presented by the priest who through lack of priestly self-discipline has become a problem to Mother Church." One of his recommendations was for "a more distinct teaching in the last years of the seminary of the heavy penalty involved in tampering with the innocence (or even non-innocence) of little ones." Regarding priests who have "fallen into repeated sins ... and most especially the abuse of children, we feel strongly that such unfortunate priests should be given the alternative of a retired life within the protection of monastery walls or complete laicization."[5]

In August of the following year, he met with newly elected Pope Paul VI to inform him about his work and problems he perceived in the priesthood. His follow-up letter contained this assessment: "Personally I am not sanguine of the return of priests to active duty who have been addicted to abnormal practices, especially sins with the young. However, the needs of the church must be taken into consideration and an activation of priests who have seemingly recovered in this field may be considered but is only recommended where careful guidance and supervision is possible. Where there is indication of incorrigibility, because of the tremendous scandal given, I would most earnestly recommend total laicization....."

Fitzgerald’s papers were unsealed by a judge in New Mexico in 2007 and were authenticated in depositions with Fitzgerald's successors, said Helen Zukin, a lawyer with Kiesel, Boucher & Larson, a firm in Los Angeles.[6]

Here's another article on the situation that Laodicean posted on the previous page:

http://tinyurl.com/y8ehhbb

Apr 11, 5:46 AM EDT


Worries about Calif. priest came early in career

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and BROOKE DONALD
Associated Press Writer



OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Even in his seminary days in the early 1970s, there were questions about California priest Stephen Kiesle: Colleagues said he had trouble relating to adults, lacked spirituality and didn't seem committed to anything but youth ministry.

Those colleagues, who helped make the case to the Vatican in 1981 seeking to let him leave the priesthood, said they were concerned before Kiesle was ordained, and more so after revelations Kiesle had molested children in his parish.

"He was not grown up. He spent more time with kids than with people his own age. You get suspicious of that. There's something wrong there," said John Cummins, former bishop in the Diocese of Oakland, now retired.

Still, future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas from the diocese to act on the case, according to a 1985 letter in Latin obtained by The Associated Press that bore his signature as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

It would take another two years before the Vatican doctrine watchdog office headed by Ratzinger would approve Kiesle's own request to leave the priesthood in 1987.

Vatican attorney Jeffrey Lena said the matter proceeded "expeditiously, not by modern standards, but by those standards at the time."

Kiesle pleaded no contest in 1978 to lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys and was sentenced to three years probation. He took a leave of absence from his parish position, and in 1981 returned and asked the Oakland bishop to be laicized, or removed from the priesthood.

In building a case to laicize Kiesle, the Rev. George Mockel of the Oakland Diocese asked priests who had worked with Kiesle to share their opinions of his time in seminary and work in the priesthood after being ordained in 1972.

One colleague was the Rev. Louis Dabovich, of the Church of the Good Shepherd, where Kiesle served as a deacon in the early 1970s.

"Stephen Kiesle was a very intelligent, personable and industrious young man, and yet he lacked maturity and responsibility and spirituality," Dabovich wrote. He said teenagers and children liked him; "Yet he acted as one of them: played ball with them; took them to outings and shows and spent time in their homes."

Dabovich said he was somewhat concerned about Kiesle's relationship with the youths, but never heard complaints. Only years after Kiesle left the parish did Dabovich say he learned of "some improprieties."

Dabovich also said he had spoken with then-Oakland bishop Floyd Begin about concerns he had regarding Kiesle, including the books he was reading and his general lack of maturity and spirituality.

"To me these were signs of some internal turmoil and the need to satisfy his nature, the need to share his life with someone," Dabovich wrote. "However he was ordained and most probably my observations were not taken seriously."

Dabovich said it could be detrimental if he were to remain in active ministry.

Mockel replied that there "has been a general 'tightening up' in Rome regarding these petitions. I am sure, however, that your cogent observations will be most helpful."

Another colleague, the Rev. George Crespin, the diocese chancellor, worked with Kiesle at Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Union City. He described Kiesle as talented, creative and bright, but also disorganized, unmotivated and highly undisciplined. Crespin wondered why Kiesle joined the priesthood.

"It was almost impossible to get him to take an interest in the sick, in counseling individuals or families, in offering himself for activities in the parish that were unrelated to youth," he wrote.

California church officials wrote to Ratzinger at least three times to check on the status of Kiesle's case and Cummins discussed the case with officials during a Vatican visit, according to correspondence obtained by AP. At one point, a Vatican official wrote to say the file may have been lost and suggested resubmitting materials.

As Kiesle's fate was being weighed in Rome, the priest returned to suburban Pinole to volunteer as a youth minister at St. Joseph Church. He was eventually defrocked in 1987.

Kiesle, who married after leaving the priesthood, was arrested and charged in 2002 with 13 counts of child molestation from the 1970s. All but two were thrown out after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law extending the statute of limitations.

He pleaded no contest in 2004 to a felony for molesting a young girl in his Truckee home in 1995 and was sentenced to six years in state prison.

Now 63 and a registered sex offender, Kiesle lives in a Walnut Creek gated community, according to his address listed on the Megan's Law sex registry. An AP reporter was turned away when attempting to reach him. William Gagen, an attorney who represented Kiesle in 2002, has not returned repeated calls seeking comment.

More than a half-dozen victims reached a settlement in 2005 with the Oakland diocese alleging Kiesle had molested them as young children.

Bishop Cummins said Friday he never had a good feeling about Kiesle. In his 1981 letter to the Vatican, Cummins said it seemed clear, with hindsight, that Kiesle should never have been ordained.

Cummins said the years of back-and-forth with the Vatican tested the diocese's patience but it was typical of the time.

"These things were slow and their idea of thoroughness was a little more than ours. We were in a situation that was hands on, with personal reaction," he said.

Only the Vatican can approve removing someone from the priesthood, whether it is requested by the priest or his superiors. At the time of Kiesle's petition, a variety of Vatican offices handled them. In 2001, Ratzinger required all cases involving abuse claims to go through his office, streamlining the process.

Cummins said he believed Ratzinger was following what was the practice of the time, and "that the Pope John Paul was slowing these things down."

In the November 1985 letter, Ratzinger says the arguments for removing Kiesle were of "grave significance" but such actions required very careful review and more time. Lena, the Vatican attorney, said Ratzinger's instruction to offer Kiesle "paternal care" was a way of telling the bishop he was responsible for keeping Kiesle out of trouble. Lena said Kiesle was not accused of any child abuse in the 5 1/2 years it took for the Vatican to act on the laicization.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, said the letter showed no attempt at a cover-up.

"The then-Cardinal Ratzinger didn't cover up the case, but as the letter clearly shows, made clear the need to study the case with more attention, taking into account the good of all involved," he said.

A woman who has alleged in a lawsuit that Kiesle sexually abused her as a child reacted angrily on Saturday to the Ratzinger letter. She said it seemed the Vatican was more concerned with scandal than protecting children.

The woman identified herself by her first name only, Anne, during a news conference in San Diego with her attorney. The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual abuse, however, Anne has chosen to speak publicly about her experience.

She pleaded to the pope: "Do the right thing, for once. Please. The whole world is watching. I'm watching. And if you want any chance at saving the Catholic Church you need to do something and you need to do it now."

Wow.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_ ... priests_13

AP IMPACT: Predator priests shuffled around globe



RIO DE JANEIRO – There he was, five decades later, the priest who had raped Joe Callander in Massachusetts. The photo in the Roman Catholic newsletter showed him with a smile across his wrinkled face, near-naked Amazon Indian children in his arms and at his feet.

The Rev. Mario Pezzotti was working with children and supervising other priests in Brazil.

It's not an isolated example.

In an investigation spanning 21 countries across six continents, The Associated Press found 30 cases of priests accused of abuse who were transferred or moved abroad. Some escaped police investigations. Many had access to children in another country, and some abused again.

A priest who admitted to abuse in Los Angeles went to the Philippines, where U.S. church officials mailed him checks and advised him not to reveal their source. A priest in Canada was convicted of sexual abuse and then moved to France, where he was convicted of abuse again in 2005. Another priest was moved back and forth between Ireland and England, despite being diagnosed as a pederast, a man who commits sodomy with boys.

"The pattern is if a priest gets into trouble and it's close to becoming a scandal or if the law might get involved, they send them to the missions abroad," said Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk and critic of what he says is a practice of international transfers of accused and admitted priest child abusers. "Anything to avoid a scandal."

Church officials say that in some cases, the priests themselves moved to another country and the new parish might not have been aware of past allegations. In other cases, church officials said they did not believe the allegations, or that the priest had served his time and reformed.

___

Callander says he was 14 when he was raped three times and abused on other occasions in 1959 at the now-closed Xaverian Missionary Faith High School in Holliston, Mass. The Xaverians settled the case for $175,000 in 1993. At least two other accusations of sexual abuse were leveled against Pezzotti in the Boston area.

In the meantime, from 1970 to 2003, Pezzotti was in Brazil, where he worked with the Kayapo Indians.

In a handwritten note of apology to Callander in January 1993, Pezzotti said he had cured himself in the jungle.

"I asked to leave Holliston and go to Brazil to change my life and begin a new life. Upon arrival in Brazil, confiding in God's mercy, I owned up to the problem," Pezzotti wrote. "With divine help, I overcame it."

There is no evidence that Pezzotti, now 75, abused children in Brazil, which has more Catholics than any other nation. Brazilian law enforcement officials said they were unaware of any complaints about him.

The Rev. Robert Maloney, a former provincial of the Xaverians who worked closely on Callander's settlement, said Pezzotti was allowed to stay in Brazil for another decade and work with children after a psychological evaluation. He added that a Xaverian investigation into Pezzotti and his work in Brazil turned up nothing.

After Pezzotti returned to Italy in 2003, "he was constantly being asked for by Brazil and by the people he worked with," Maloney added.

In 2008, Pezzotti returned to Brazil. A few months later, Callander saw the photos of him on the Internet and complained to the church. The priest was quickly sent back to Italy.

The Xaverian vicar general, Rev. Luigi Menegazzo, said Pezzotti works at Xaverian headquarters in Parma tending to sick and elderly priests. Asked if Pezzotti had any contact with children or public parish work, he said, "Absolutely in no way."

Reached by telephone, Pezzotti said only: "I don't see why I have to talk about it. Everything was resolved and I don't feel like talking."

___

Father Vijay Vhaskr Godugunuru was forced to return to India and then was transferred to Italy after pleading no contest to assaulting a 15-year-old girl while visiting friends in Bonifay, Fla. He now ministers to a parish in a medieval town of about 4,000 in Tuscany, where he hears confessions, celebrates Mass and works with children.

The bishops supervising him said they were aware of the case but believed he was innocent.

"The evidence that has been given does not support the accusation," Monsignor Rodolfo Cetoloni, the bishop of the Montepulciano diocese, told the AP last week.

Cetoloni said he saw no reason for any restrictions. Godugunuru, now 40, "enjoys the esteem of everybody," he said.

Godugunuru had been charged with fondling a parishioner in her family's van on June 23, 2006. The priest, visiting from India's diocese of Cuddapah, had been allowed to assist at the Blessed Trinity Catholic Church in Bonifay.

The girl, now 19, told police in a sworn statement that Godugunuru "fondled her breasts and penetrated her vagina with his fingers." In his own interview with police, Godugunuru said the girl "had taken his hand and placed it between her legs." He denied intentionally touching her.

The priest was arrested the next month for lewd or lascivious battery on a minor. He faced up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine but in exchange for his no contest plea was required to return to India, undergo counseling, not supervise minors for a year and not return to the United States.

The girl's mother brought the case to the attention of Pope Benedict XVI.

"My family and others have been forced out of our church," she wrote in an Aug. 23, 2006, e-mail obtained by the AP. "Just when our faith and our faith in our church were tested most, our Priest chose the side of silence. ... To make matters worse, it was my daughter who was the one being attacked and he just sat back and watched. ...

"This is the biggest problem my family has ever dealt with," she continued. "Please Father, help us. Remember us in your prayers, especially for the speedy healing of my daughter."

The e-mail also said she had contacted the bishop of Cuddapah, the Most Rev. Doraboina Moses Prakasam, and asked if there had been any past accusations of sexual improprieties against Godugunuru. "I have not heard back from him and I don't expect to," she said.

The pope never answered.

Prakasam told the AP he was under the impression that Godugunuru had been absolved of the charges.

"What I was told by the people looking after that case was that he was cleared and ... he was allowed to come back to India," he said.

He said he told the Italian bishop of the case when Godugunuru moved to Tuscany.

The priest of San Lorenzo parish told the AP by phone last week that Godugunuru works as his deputy. He refused further comment, except to say that Godugunuru "does what all deputy parish priests do" and "helps the parish priest."

Godugunuru declined to be interviewed by the AP.

___

Clodoveo Piazza is an Italian Jesuit who ran a homeless shelter for street children and worked in Brazil for 30 years. In 2005, he was awarded $600,000 from Brazil's national development bank to set up four facilities in the northeastern city of Salvador.

Last August, prosecutors said at least eight boys and young men had come forward to say either that they were abused by Piazza or that he allowed visiting foreigners to sexually abuse boys. Brazilian police are seeking his arrest.

Piazza now works in Mozambique, according to the Catholic nonprofit Organizzazione di Aiuto Fraterno, and the church has come to his defense.

"The Italian Jesuits express their solidarity with the brother and father Piazza," reads one note on the nonprofit's Web site. The group adds that "the slander against missionaries is becoming an increasingly popular game."

Brazilian prosecutors say Piazza, a naturalized Brazilian, has refused to respond to the charges of sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children.

Interviewed in Maputo, Mozambique, this week, Piazza said the charges were false and part of a campaign to blackmail him by "political circles" in Brazil that he did not identify. He said he had been acquitted of the charges twice in Brazil, and that there is no evidence against him.

A spokeswoman with Bahia state's Public Ministry said there were no records of Piazza ever being tried or acquitted and that the case against him is still open. She spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with department policy.

"This is propaganda in order to earn money," Piazza told the AP, saying people in Brazil had asked him for money, which he could not pay.

He said he has been living in a Jesuit residence in Maputo for about seven months. He said he was working with Italy's Turino University on "economic projects" and was not working with children.

___

Joseph Skelton was a 26-year-old student at St. John Provincial Seminary in Detroit, Mich., in 1988 when he was convicted of sexual misconduct with a 15-year-old boy. He was given three years' probation and dismissed from his seminary.

Two decades later, he lives in the Philippines, where he was ordained a priest and now serves as parochial vicar of the St. Vincent Ferrer parish in the remote town of Calape, according to the diocese directory. He is also a popular gospel singer in the heavily Catholic country.

Reached on his cell phone, Skelton declined comment.

He finished his seminary studies in Manila, the capital, and was ordained in 2001 in the diocese of Tagbilaran in Bohol province.

The bishop who ordained Skelton said he wouldn't have made him a priest if he had known about the criminal conviction.

"I ordained him because, while there was some talk about his effeminate ways, there was no case against him," Bishop Leopoldo S. Tumulak said.

Tumulak, who has since stepped down, said it would be up to his successor to reopen the case.

"The priest is trying to live well," Tumulak said. "If he has really changed, the heart of the church is compassionate — although in America, Europe, they have different ways of looking at it. Not the church, but the government, the people. In the Philippines, it's a little bit different."

The archdiocese of Detroit, after learning Skelton had been ordained, sent a letter about his conviction to the Tagbilaran diocese in early 2003. Tumulak, the former bishop, said he doesn't remember if he received the letter, and in any case it would have been too late.

Informed of the case, current Bishop Leonardo Medroso said he would investigate. But he added:

"The case has been judged already. He was convicted and that means to say he has served already the conviction. So what obstacle can there be if he has already served his punishment or penalty?"

___

The Rev. Enrique Diaz Jimenez of Colombia was punished three times in three different countries.

He pleaded guilty to sexually abusing three boys while a priest at St. Leo's Church and Our Lady of Sorrows Church in New York in the mid-1980s, and was sentenced in April 1991 to five years' probation and four months of an "intermittent sentence."

He was deported and resumed work as a priest in Venezuela, where he was suspended from the priesthood in 1996 for 20 years after 18 boys accused him of molesting them.

Monsignor Francisco de Guruceaga, the bishop who hired Diaz in Venezuela, said it was not clear to him when the priest arrived that he had been charged with abusing children. De Guruceaga said Diaz told him he had problems with relationships with women, not molesting children.

Diaz returned to Colombia in 1996 and again found work as a priest. Colombian prosecutors say Diaz was charged in 2001 with molesting one more boy and pleaded guilty later that year.

___

Transferring abusive priests was called "the geographical cure," according to Terry Carter, a New Zealand victim. Carter won $32,000 in compensation from the Society of Mary, which oversees the Catholic boarding school outside Wellington where he was abused by the Rev. Allan Woodcock.

Woodcock molested at least 11 boys at four church facilities in New Zealand before being sent by the church to Ireland. He was extradited to New Zealand in 2004, pleaded guilty to 21 sexual abuse charges involving 11 victims and was sentenced to seven years in jail. He was paroled in September 2009.

"They whipped him out of the country to Ireland," Carter said. "They took him out of New Zealand after years of offending in different locations."

Society of Mary spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer told the AP that some families of Woodcock's victims asked that he be sent offshore.

"He was sent to Ireland for intensive psychotherapy. He had no permission to exercise his ministry or to be involved with youth," she said.

Woodcock was suspended from his ministry in the New Zealand branch of the Society of Mary in 1987, according to Freer. He was removed from the priesthood in 2001, she said.

Freer noted that even 20 years ago, it was accepted belief that "pedophilia could be cured," often with intensive psychotherapy. "Pedophilia is now seen as recidivist," she said.

Woodcock is believed to be living in New Zealand's North Island coastal city of Wanganui. A woman who gave her name as Catherine Woodcock and described herself as "a relative" said she didn't think he would want to make any comment to the media. Asked why, she replied: "It is not appropriate at this stage."

___

Back in Windsor, Vermont, Callander lives a quiet life with Sandi, his wife of 35 years. It was only last week that he told his siblings about the abuse.

Callander says he is coming forward now because the Xaverians failed to keep their promise that Pezzotti would not be around children. He wants the church to change by defrocking or isolating priests who admit abuse so they cannot work in the same positions again — anywhere in the world.

"All I want is for the church to do what is right for once," Callander said. "To end the facade that a man like that should have the right to call himself a Catholic priest."

___

Associated Press writer Bradley Brooks reported this story from Rio de Janeiro and Alessandra Rizzo from Rome. Contributing to this story were AP writers Daniel Woolls in Spain, Fran d'Emilio and Nicole Winfield in Italy, Angela Charlton in France, Robert Barr in London, Eliane Engeler in Switzerland, Veronika Oleksyn in Austria, Matt Sedensky in Miami, Gillian Flaccus and Raquel Dillon in Los Angeles, David Runk in Detroit, Sean Farrell in Montreal, Rob Gillies in Toronto, Bill Kaczor in Tallahassee, Fla., Pat Condon in Minneapolis, Emanuel Camillo in Mozambique, Alan Clendenning in Brazil, Ian James in Venezuela, Olga Rodriguez in Mexico, Vivian Sequera, Libardo Cardona in Colombia, Michael Warren in Argentina, Eva Vergara, Federico Quilodran and Brad Haynes in Chile, Ravi Nessman in India, Hrvoje Hranjski, Teresa Cerojano and Oliver Teves in the Phillippines, and Ray Lilley in New Zealand.

From Popular Science (via Cryptogon):

Lucifer Instrument Helps Astronomers See Through Darkness to Most Distant Observable Objects

A new instrument with an evil-sounding name is helping scientists see how stars are born. Lucifer, which stands for (deep breath) "Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research," is a chilled instrument attached to a telescope in Arizona. And yes, it's named for the Devil, whose name itself means "morning star." But it wasn't meant to evoke him, according to a spokesman for the University of Arizona, where it is housed.
The instrument is chilled to -213 Celsius, about -351 F, to allow for near-infrared observations. That wavelength is important for understanding star and planet formation, as well as observing very distant and very young galaxies. Lucifer has three interchangeable cameras for imaging and spectroscopy in different resolutions. It has a large field of view and high-res capabilities, which allow a wide range of observations.

Technology, Rebecca Boyle, astronomy, lucifer, observatories, space, stars, Lucifer is part of the Large Binocular Telescope, which happens to be right next to the Vatican Observatory on Mt. Graham in Tucson. That's right, the Vatican has an observatory in Arizona, manned by Jesuit astronomers. Now its next-door neighbor is named for the Devil. Scientists at five German universities designed the instrument, and they came up with the name, according to Daniel Stolte, a spokesman for the University of Arizona. Stolte -- who is German -- explained that the team was tossing around names, looking for an acronym that would fit all the technical terms.

"In Germany, they wouldn't have the same hesitation that Americans would have, since it's a very secular country," he said. "I may be completely off, but that's just my hunch -- for us Germans, Lucifer just sounds cool. It's more historical than emotional." No matter your religion, the photos are certainly cool.

Interesting name for the telescope, slomo, considering the controversy about the location. A spokesperson for the Apache said:

http://www.seac.org/seac-sw/mtg.htm

"We have listened to you tell us Mt. Graham is not sacred. But those who say that do not know, and they have not talked to the spiritual leaders, like myself. ...Nowhere else in this world stands another mountain like the mountain that you are trying to disturb. On this mountain is a great life giving force. You have no knowledge of the place you are about to destroy..."

Huh? The article at that link goes on to say:

The Vatican, Vatican City

The 1.8 meter Vatican telescope, is a relatively small telescope (1/4 the power of a telescope now nearly complete on Kitt Peak). The mirror for this telescope was donated to the Vatican by the University of Arizona Mirror Lab. The mirror was originally spun as a test mirror for an Air Force Star-Wars contract, then donated to the Vatican Observatory. Vatican astronomers have said, "...there are other viable sites, [for the Vatican telescope] and they are in Arizona." Vatican astronomers have recently been stating that the Vatican telescope could be used to search for "extra-terrestrial" life, which the Vatican Jesuit astronomers would consider "baptizing!"

Also, just a coincidence but interesting, is that the astronaut who fled across the US in diapers, Lt. Nowak, was a NASA observer with the Vatican Observatory Research Group Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope (VATT), at the Mount Graham International Observatory.

chiggerbit wrote:Huh? The article at that link goes on to say:

The Vatican, Vatican City

The 1.8 meter Vatican telescope, is a relatively small telescope (1/4 the power of a telescope now nearly complete on Kitt Peak). The mirror for this telescope was donated to the Vatican by the University of Arizona Mirror Lab. The mirror was originally spun as a test mirror for an Air Force Star-Wars contract, then donated to the Vatican Observatory. Vatican astronomers have said, "...there are other viable sites, [for the Vatican telescope] and they are in Arizona." Vatican astronomers have recently been stating that the Vatican telescope could be used to search for "extra-terrestrial" life, which the Vatican Jesuit astronomers would consider "baptizing!"

Stephen Hawking would argue that's a bad idea.

"In Germany, they wouldn't have the same hesitation that Americans would have, since it's a very secular country," he said. "I may be completely off, but that's just my hunch -- for us Germans, Lucifer just sounds cool.

http://tinyurl.com/2exwdr8

Aug. 18, 1995 Visiting German astronomers witnessed on video disrespectfully smirking and snickering during Apache presentation to them at San Carlos about the sacredness of Mt.G..[48A]

(Consider the source here.)

http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/?p=1602

University of Arizona, Vatican and Jesuits Name New Telescope ‘Lucifer’
Apr 23, 2010
Headlines

University of Arizona, Vatican and Jesuits Name New Telescope ‘Lucifer’

Housed at Mt. Graham, critics wonder are the ‘evil ones’ planning a staged end times scenario

By Greg Szymanski, JD
April 23, 2010

The University of Arizona, together with the Vatican and Jesuit Order, announced today it named its newest high-powered telescopic instrument ‘Lucifer’.

There has been a great deal of speculation, among Vatican critics, why in the first place the Jesuit Order was allowed to build a huge stellar observatory on Mt. Graham in Arizona – on holy Indian ground – in cooperation with the state-run University of Arizona.

With the naming of Lucifer, critics claim the Vatican has showed its true colors, using God and Jesus as shills for their true master — Lucifer.

According to an article in Popular Science by Rebecca Boyle the “new instrument with an evil-sounding name is helping scientists see how stars are born.”

The article went to explain the name Lucifer stands for (deep breath) “Large Binocular Telescope Near-infrared Utility with Camera and Integral Field Unit for Extragalactic Research.”

“And yes,” according to Popular Science, “it’s named for the Devil, whose name itself means “morning star.”

However, according to a spokesman for the University of Arizona,it wasn’t meant to evoke any connotations of evil.

Lucifer has three interchangeable cameras for imaging and spectroscopy in different resolutions. It has a large field of view and high-res capabilities, which allow a wide range of observations.

Critics are now shaking their heads even more, wondering why the Vatican would have its own stellar observatory and why they would have the audacity to name a new telescope after the Devil himself.

According to Mitch Battros some people believe “it is for the purpose to monitor a warning presented in the Bible.

Could it be it is named “Wormwood” coming from the New Testament book of Revelation, saying:

“And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” (Revelation 8:10, 11 – King James Bible).

Battros added this reference to the end times as well as Mayan prophecy:

“Is it possible the Vatican has the same information as the Mayans? Both speak of an event coming from the center of our galaxy Milky Way. Both indicate a powerful celestial event. But the most important question of all is “when”.

“I do not believe any scientist or focused individual can argue that all of space science and cosmology appears to have a certain urgency for discovery. From galactic ‘charged particles’ to new found asteroids, there is a sense of ‘let’s find it as soon as we can’.”

Here is an article that appeared in the Native American Roots web site, explaining how the Vatican violated Native American holy ground:

For many Native American nations there are certain geographic places which have special spiritual meanings. These sacred places are often portals to the spirit worlds. For the Apache in Arizona, one of these sacred places is Mount Graham: this place is called Dzil Nchaa Si An (Big Seated Mountain) and is mentioned in 32 of the sacred songs which have been handed down through the oral tradition for many generations. It is here that the Ga’an, the guardian spirits of the Apache, live.

In 1873, Mount Graham was removed from the boundaries of the San Carlos Reservation and placed in public domain. The spiritual value of Mount Graham to the Apache was not considered. This action set the stage for conflict a century later.
Ojibwa :: Mount Graham: Science and Apache Religion
In 1984, the University of Arizona and the Vatican selected Mount Graham as a site for a complex of 18 telescopes. The fact that this is a sacred place for the Apache was not taken into consideration. To get around the legal barriers of the American Indian Religious Freedoms Act, the University hired a lobbying firm to put pressure on Congress to remove this, and other, roadblocks. The area in question is administered by the U.S. Forest Service.

The Vatican has an observatory staff which is officially support by the Vatican City State. The Vatican Observatory Foundation is supported by private donations. One of the important duties of the church is to maintain an accurate calendar and this requires astronomical observations. Hence the involvement of the Vatican with astronomy. The first Vatican observatory was established in 1774.

Congress passed the Arizona-Idaho Conservation Act in 1988. In response to lobbying by the University of Arizona and the Vatican, the Act included a provision to allow the construction of three telescopes on Mount Graham without having to comply with the American Indian Religious Freedoms Act or with environmental laws.

The following year the Apache Survival Coalition was started by Ola Cassadore-Davis, the daughter of Apache spiritual leader Phillip Cassadore. The purpose of the Coalition was to save Dzil Nchaa Si An from desecration by a telescope complex to be built by the University of Arizona and the Vatican.

In 1991, the San Carlos Apache Tribe passed a resolution stating that Mount Graham is sacred to them. Furthermore, the resolution stated that the tribe supported the efforts of the Apache Survival Coalition to protect the religious and cultural beliefs of the tribe.

Following the declarations of the sacredness of Mount Graham by the Apache Survival Coalition and the San Carlos Apache Tribe, the Vatican in 1991declared that Mt. Graham was not sacred because it lacked religious shrines. Jesuit Father George Coyne, director of the Vatican Observatory, indicated that he could not find an authentic Apache who thought the mountain was sacred. Father Coyne stated that to convince him that the mountain was sacred he would need to see evidence of shrines and that he would not accept Apache oral history or statements by Apache-speaking Euro-American anthropologists.

Father Coyne further declared that Apache beliefs were “a kind of religiosity to which I cannot subscribe and which must be suppressed with all the force we can muster.”


The Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) reports that the Jesuit Father Charles W. Polzer calls opposition to the construction of the telescope complex on top of Mount Graham “part of a Jewish conspiracy” and comes from the Jewish lawyers of the American Civil Liberties Union who are out to undermine and destroy the Catholic Church.

In spite of opposition by the San Carlos Apache tribal council, Apache spiritual leaders, and environmental groups, actual construction of the project began in 1991.

With flagrant insensitivity to American Indians, the University of Arizona announced that it intended to name its new telescope on Mount Graham the Colum¬bus telescope in honor of the European explorer. The University was apparently unaware that Columbus is not considered to be a hero by American Indian people. Ultimately, the University withdrew the name following public response against it.

The San Carlos Apache tribal council in 1993 reaffirmed reso¬lutions opposing the construction of the telescope on Mount Graham. The council resolution stated that the telescope “constitutes a display of profound disrespect for a cherished feature of our original homeland as well as a serious violation of our tradi¬tional religious beliefs.”

After meeting with Apache elders and spiritual leaders at the San Carlos Apache Reservation, the National Council of Churches in 1995 passed a resolution calling for the removal of a telescope from Mount Graham.

The President’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation in 1996 declared the entire Mount Graham observatory project to be in violation of the National Historic Preservation Act because of the project’s harm to Apache culture and spiritual life, but the telescope was not removed.

In 1997, the spokesman for the Apaches for Cultural Preservation was arrested for praying on Mount Graham. The Apaches for Cultural Preservation feel that the Forest Service, the University of Arizona, and the Vatican developed the project on Mount Graham knowing that it would violate Apache religious beliefs.

President Bill Clinton, using the line item veto, deleted $10 million in federal funds for the operation of the University of Arizona’s Mount Graham telescope project. San Carlos Apache Chairman Raymond Stanley and the White Mountain Apache Cultural Resources Director Ramon Riley sent letters to the President thanking him for the veto.

Beginning in 1998, the University of Arizona began requiring Indians to obtain prayer permits before they crossed the top of Mount Graham near the University’s telescopes. The University’s prayer policy required that the permit be requested at least two business days before the visit and that it include a description of where on the mountain the prayers will take place. Only people who were enrolled members of federally recognized tribes were allowed to pray.

In 1999, the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic university, announced that it would also build a telescope on Mount Graham. The University president claimed that he was unaware that Mount Graham was sacred to the Apache and that the Apache opposed the desecration of this sacred place. This was in spite of the fact that the building of telescopes on this sacred mountain by the University of Arizona and the Vatican was a controversial issue and had been the subject of many news stories.

In 1999, the White Mountain Apache tribal council passed a resolution urging the U.S. Forest Service to “honor its duties to protect the physical integrity of Mount Graham and its long-standing and ongoing historical, cultural and religious importance to many Apaches.”

Realizing that they were making little headway with the bureaucracies of the American government (Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture) and Congress, the Apaches took their cause to the United Nations in 1999. Ola Cassadore Davis testified before the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. She stated:

We Apache wish to bring to the people of this world a better understanding of Indian people, in order that we are able to preserve and freely live by our traditional culture and religious beliefs.

Source: http://www.envirolink.org/exte…

She asked that the special use permit by the Department of Agriculture Forest Service be terminated. She concluded:

In conclusion, we Apache would respectfully urge this body of the United Nations to recognize and acknowledge that the disrespect and suffering caused by the nations and governments mentioned above be terminated forthwith. We Apache petition you for a resolution consistent with the National Congress of American Indians of 1993, 1995 and July 1999. They stated that the public interest in protecting Apache culture is compelling, and that the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture should accordingly require the prompt removal of the telescopes from Mount Graham.

In 2004, the San Carlos Apache rejected an offer of $120,000 from the University of Arizona, calling it a bribe. Saying that the University had done nothing but tell lies to the Apache people, the San Carlos Apache indicated that they would continue to honor their sacred mountain. One tribal council member indicated that if the University did not have a telescope on Mount Graham they would have no interest in the Apache people.

The conflict over this sacred site is still not resolved. On the one hand it can be viewed as a conflict between two different cultures. On the other hand, it can also be seen as a conflict between science and religion.

The Mount Graham International Observatory is home to three telescopes: the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope, and the Large Binocular Telescope. On their website, their version of the history of Mount Graham focuses on James Duncan Graham and mentions the Spanish Conquistadores. There is no mention of the Apache. Their section on the legal actions necessary for the building of the complex mentions environmental concerns, but there is no mention of the Apache spiritual concerns.

The telescopes sit on land which has been leased from the Forest Service and the lease must be regularly renewed. Efforts by American Indian people and various environmental groups have so far been unsuccessful in convincing the Forest Service to deny the renewal of the leases.
Article from Mount Graham: Science and Apache Religion
http://www.nativeamericannetroots.net/di…

by: Ojibwa
Sat Apr 17, 2010 at 12:51:10 PM PDT

http://www.companymagazine.org/v151/stargate.html

n a mountaintop in southeastern Arizona
a consortium of American, German, and Italian research institutions is assembling the most powerful telescope in the world.

A 1,000-pound mirror is hoisted high for reinstallation into the telescope on Mount Graham, considered the best astronomical site in the continental United States. Vatican astronomers working at the observatory, near Tucson, are more than satisfied with the very high resolution images.

Two 27.5-foot-wide mirrors of an optical shape and quality once unimaginable are being polished; they will be mounted in a radical new binocular configuration that will allow astronomers to combine and compare their signals. The telescope will see fainter and finer than any ever built. Within the first ten years of the next century it should provide our first real chance of resolving individual planets in orbit around distant stars.

Just down the road from this Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) is a much more modest effort: a 72-inch telescope in operation since 1995. It has served as the testbed for many of the advanced features of its larger cousin, including an f/1 spin-cast mirror (the first ever installed in a large telescope) supported and cooled by temperature-regulated hydraulic fluid and made moveable by computer-controlled direct-drive altazimuth tracking. Responsibility for its design, development, and operation has been shared by engineers at the University of Arizona and Jesuits at the Vatican Observatory.

Using and maintaining an advanced telescope with a number of new and unique features is the challenge that falls squarely on the shoulders of Vatican Observatory Jesuits Fr. Richard Boyle, telescope scientist, and Fr. Chris Corbally, vice director of the Vatican Observatory Research Group at the University of Arizona.

"The day-to-day experience at the VATT (Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope) is one of ladders and slides," Corbally admits, "but that's true of any new telescope." A new computer chip spews out data faster than an aging workstation can receive and process it. New computer software for the altazimuth mount unaccountably and annoyingly "forgets" the location of the telescope while tracking an object across the sky. The hydraulic bearings that are supposed to allow the telescope to move without vibration are subject to unpredictable binding. No sooner is one glitch resolved than another makes itself known. Most engineers allow themselves five years to shake out all the bugs in a new telescope; in this regard, VATT is right on schedule.

Fr. George Coyne, SJ, director of the Vatican Observatory on Mount Graham, is also adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona.

Yet, one by one, the problems do get solved, and in the past year VATT observers have discovered evidence of possible Massive Compact Halo Objects around the galaxy M-31, a key to understanding the "missing mass" problem in cosmology. Another team has begun a spectrophotometric survey of stars both in our galaxy and in galaxy M-51 that may help us decode the order in which different parts of the galaxy were formed. Another group at the VATT recorded a rare eclipse of Saturn's moons, refining their orbits in a way that may give clues to the internal structure of Saturn itself. Meanwhile, every technical problem solved helps teach engineers about what to look for (and look out for) when the LBT,VATT's larger cousin, is built.

The challenges are not only technical. The observatory is nestled in a mountaintop forest, an island ecosystem surrounded by the southern Arizona desert. This results in some of the clearest, steadiest viewing in the continental United States. But protecting this ecosystem has involved years of careful planning and delicate negotiations with dozens of interest groups. The surrounding forest was left untouched right to the edge of the telescope building itself; as a result, the telescope was in extreme danger when forest fires swept the mountainside during the summer of 1996.

But more than just a mountain's environment is at stake. By studying the universe with the best available tools, Vatican Observatory Jesuits are creating a deeper awareness of our place in the universe. And the interplay of scientific knowledge with religious faith provides a spur and a challenge to both. With that in mind, Vatican astronomer Fr. Bill Stoeger, SJ, and observatory director Fr. George Coyne, SJ, have been involved in sponsoring a series of conferences with the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley on science, philosophy, and theology with the theme "Divine Action in a Scientific Perspective."

Astronomical research has its practical benefits. Distant quasars are nature's high-energy physics laboratories; their behavior can suggest new avenues for laboratory research here on Earth. The behaviors of stars and planets are ideal illustrations of principles of chemistry and physics for undergraduates. And someday we may rely on VATT data to choose which near-Earth asteroid has the best mix of resources for commercial exploitation.

But mostly, throughout history, humanity has studied the stars for the sheer love of their beauty. Today this human need is most easily fulfilled on mountaintops with high-tech instruments. And that means that eager students from less-developed lands are at a distinct disadvantage. Twelve years ago, Vatican astronomer Fr. Martin McCarthy, SJ, proposed a solution to this inequity: a series of intensive four-week summer courses focused on some aspect of astrophysics for students from around the world beginning postdoctoral astronomy studies. These courses, supported by the Vatican, are held at the observatory's headquarters in Castel Gandolfo, Italy. Of the 150 or so students who have passed through these biennial summer schools since 1986, more than 85 percent are still active in astronomy. Many are now professors in countries such as Nigeria and Sri Lanka, where they can transmit this knowledge of the universe to their own people and thus, in Coyne's words, "contribute to the rich cultural heritage of their developing countries."


Fr. Christopher Corbally, SJ, vice director of the Vatican Observatory on Mount Graham, also teaches astronomy at the University of Arizona.


Besides helping out individual students and fostering the intellectual growth of their home countries, this influx of young and eager scholars has paid dividends for the Jesuits in return. Collaborations begun at these schools can endure for years. For example, Leonardo Vanzi, a graduate of the 1993 school, is now a post-doctoral fellow in Italy preparing an advanced infrared array detector for us on both the VATT and the LBT. His classmate, José Funes, is now a young Jesuit priest who will be joining the observatory staff when he completes his degree.

But even more, the enthusiasm of students gives life to difficult and at times tedious research. "The friendships generated at our schools," notes Coyne, "are one of the results I most cherish. These enduring relationships, both personal and professional, cross over all political, cultural, and religious boundaries."

The tools of astronomy, the VATT and its attendant computers, make up the heart of the Jesuits' work at the Vatican Observatory. But it is the people they touch who make up its soul. When united with a love of creation and a tradition of scientific research, telescopes like the VATT become the world's gateway to the stars.
Jesuit astronomers Chris Corbally, George Coyne, Richard Boyle
Favored Status

Who gets to use the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope? The University of Arizona and the Vatican Observatory share telescope time between them in proportion to the amount each contributes to its construction and maintenance. Some three-quarters of the telescope's cost has been borne by the nonprofit Vatican Observatory Foundation, itself funded by private donors.

This gives the Jesuit astronomers the luxury of being able to schedule large amounts of observing time for long-term projects such as the spectral mapping and classification of stars in our galaxy. That would be impossible to accomplish at publicly funded national observatories such as Kitt Peak, where observers are often lucky to get only five nights a year.

In addition to their own work, however, the Vatican Observatory team has a dream of funding postdoctoral fellowships for young observers from Third World countries. As the funding becomes available, it is hoped that one or two young scientists every year would be supported to observe with the kind of telescope and instrumentation not available to them in most parts of the world. Candidates would include, but not be limited to, graduates of the observatory's summer schools.
More on the Web.For technical information about the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope or more information about the Vatican Observatory itself, consult the web page: http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo


Br. Guy Consolmagno, SJ, an astronomer at the Vatican Observatory in Tucson, has a PhD in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona. He taught at Harvard and the University of Nairobi before entering the Society of Jesus in 1989.

Page maintained by Richard VandeVelde, vande@math.luc.edu. Updated: Wed., April 08 1998

The Catholic Church depends on the fiction of Lucifer as an essential part of its con game.

If it were possible for a mythic being like Lucifer to get sick and to die, the Vatican would have him insured under its premium health plan.

Beginning in 1998, the University of Arizona began requiring Indians to obtain prayer permits before they crossed the top of Mount Graham near the University’s telescopes. The University’s prayer policy required that the permit be requested at least two business days before the visit and that it include a description of where on the mountain the prayers will take place. Only people who were enrolled members of federally recognized tribes were allowed to pray.

Father Coyne further declared that Apache beliefs were “a kind of religiosity to which I cannot subscribe and which must be suppressed with all the force we can muster.”

The situation is getting so bad with regards to the Catholic Church's abuse of the victims of sexual abuse that I'm beginning to think some sort of permit should be required for its members to pray in their places of worship, assuming of course that the places of worship qualify.

http://tinyurl.com/2debul5

.....-On April 6, 1992, UA History Professor and Jesuit Priest Charles Polzer filed an
affidavit on behalf on UA, against the traditional Apache. Father Polzer states:
P.O. Box 39629, Phoenix, AZ 85060-9629 Page 16

...As an ordained priest and trained theologian as well as historian and
anthropologist, I know that anthropological appeals to this court regarding the
sacredness of Mt. Graham to the Apache is little more than a preposterous
misuse of academic status and the poorest manifestation of sound
methodology as I have witnessed in recent times."
(Affidavit of Father Charles W. Polzer, S.J., Curator of Ethnohistory,
Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona, Exhibit "C", April 6,
1992, Page 2, Apache Survival Coalition, et al. v. US, et al.,
University of
Arizona, intervenor, CIV. No. 91-1350 PHX
WPC)
-On April 6, 1992, UA Astronomy professor and Vatican Observatory Director
George Coyne, S.J., also filed an affidavit on behalf of UA, against the traditional
Apache. Father Coyne states:
"We are not convinced by any of the arguments thus far presented that Mt.
Graham possesses a sacred character which precludes responsible and
legitimate use of the land...In fact, we believe that responsible and legitimate
use of the land enhances its sacred character."
"The Vatican Observatory would like to learn about any such genuine
concerns of authentic Apaches."
"Since no credible argument has been presented for not doing so, the
Vatican Observatory will continue with the construction and operation of the
Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mt. Graham and with further
possible collaboration with its partners in the Mt. Graham International
Observatory,
one of the most promising and important astrophysical ventures
of this
decade."
(March 5, 1992, Statement of the Vatican Observatory on the Mt.
Graham International Observatory and American Indian Peoples,
George V. Coyne,
S.J., Director, Vatican Observatory
University of Arizona, Exhibit "B", Apache Survival Coalition, et al. v.
USA, et al., University of Arizona, intervenor, CIV. No. 91-1350 PHXM
WPC, April 6, 1992.)
-On April 9, 1992, Mr. Stanley declares:
"Cutting into the mountain top would be very detrimental because what the
telescope project is doing on the mountain is a desecration. This is how the
mountain works: our prayers travel to and up through the mountain to God.
They must travel the right road to God through the top of the mountain. But
the telescopes interfere with this. If they are built, our prayers will not travel
the right road to God..."
P.O. Box 39629, Phoenix, AZ 85060-9629 Page 17

"The telescopes disrupt the spiritual life of the mountain for the mountain and
the traditional Apache. For the traditional spiritual Apache who live in the
valley the mountain is the road to the Almighty. It is a gateway. The prayers
are like smoke going in the air, rising...The "Almighty" is the Ruler of Life.
To reach the Almighty the prayers go up through the mountain and passes
through the top. If you build the telescopes on the top it would be like
damming a river, a spiritual river. The telescopes would be holding back all
of our prayers. The telescopes block the gateway into the next realm..."
(Supplemental Declaration of Franklin Stanley, Sr. in Support of
Preliminary Injunction, Apache Survival Coalition, et al. v. USA, CIV.
No. 91-1350 PHX WPC, April 9, 1992)
-On May 25, 1992, UA Astronomy Professor and Vatican Observatory Director
Coyne again attacked the traditional Apache. In a letter to the Working Group for
Indigenous Peoples in Amsterdam, Father Coyne includes a paper stating that
traditional Apache beliefs are "a kind of...religiosity which must be suppressed with
all the force we can muster." His statements are enclosed in a paper entitled,
"Personal Reflections on the Nature of Sacred" in which Father Coyne calls for
such suppression because he says the San Carlos Apache have failed to "...give
reasonable arguments for the sacred character of Mt. Graham..."
-On August 14, 1992, the Catholic Diocese of Tucson confirms for the Arizona
Republic that UA history professor and Jesuit priest Charles Polzer "has called
opposition to a telescope complex atop Mt. Graham "part of a Jewish conspiracy"
which "comes out of the Jewish lawyers of the ACLU to undermine and destroy the
Catholic Church." " The executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union
defends Fr. Polzer saying, "It's a free-speech right to say what he believes, no
matter how truthful or fair or narrow-minded or bigoted or racist it might be."
(Yozwiak, Steve, "Priest calls telescope foes part of "Jewish conspiracy" ",
Arizona Republic, August 14, 1992.)
-On October 28, 1992, in an article, "Vatican sets evangelical sights on outer
space," the London Daily Telegraph reports that:
"The Roman Catholic Church is to team up with America's space agency to
look for life in outer space and so spread the Gospel to extra terrestrials...
Jesuit priests who run the Vatican Observatory near Rome say they are
joining forces with the US Nasa [sic] agency to hunt for UFO's and signs of
life on planets in solar systems to Earth's."
"...Nasa's job will to be monitor for "alien" communication signals, the
Vatican which has helped to build a new reflector telescope in Tucson,
Arizona would search for planets displaying conditions for life..."Should
intelligent alien life be found," Fr. Coyne said, "the Church would be obliged
P.O. Box 39629, Phoenix, AZ 85060-9629 Page 18

to address the question of whether extra terrestrials might be brought within
the fold and baptized...""
(Johnston, Bruce, "Vatican sets evangelical sights on outer space,"
Daily Telegraph, London, October 28, 1992.).......

..........-On January 8, 1993, NASA denies earlier claims by UA astronomy professor and
Vatican Observatory Director George Coyne that the Vatican Observatory on Mt.
Graham will join with NASA to find and baptize extra terrestrials. Earlier, on
October 28, 1992, Father Coyne had claimed that the Vatican Observatory on Mt.
Graham was " to team up with America's space agency to look for life in outer
space and so spread the Gospel to extra terrestrials." In correspondence, dated
January 8, 1993, NASA Freedom of Information Officer Patricia Riep writes
"NASA has no contract with either the Vatican Observatory or the Vatican
Observatory Research Group."
(Correspondence, Patricia Riep, Freedom of Information Act Officer,
NASA, to Dr. Robin Silver, January 8, 1993.)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aee-EcDFjkQ