Day 12

Today we headed to the Pope's vacation house in Castel Gondolfo which was about a 45 minute train ride from termini in Rome. We met with a Jesuit scholar, Guy Consolmagno, who have us a small tour of the papal palace and one of the telescopes. We stood inside the doors of the popes summer home and learned a bfrief history about the home and the surrounding communities. Towns in Italy are built on hills because the valleys were swampy and you could catch malaria. Apparently many older Italians don't like to open windows at night because the "bad air" could come in and make you sick. Bad air in Italian sounds like the word malaria. The swamps were eventually drained so I'm sure you can open windows at night now. The Barberini family built the summer home and when their family member later became Pope Urban the eighth, the house became the official vacation house of the Pope. The palace looks out over a volcanic lake and is situated on the lip of the volcano. The palace is also one of the extraterritorial properties of the Vatican. The Vatican also owns the gardens that are near the palace and during World War Two many Jewish refugees came to the gardens because it was a neutral territory. 

Where the gives his audiences when he's in town.

The view from the roof of the papal palace.

The palace wasn't built with future accommodations in mind (why would it be) and so it can be very cold and there was only one shower for the Jesuit scientists who lived there. Brother Consolmagno said that the living conditions were not grand by any means. The Jesuit priests recently moved into another building that is a bit more comfortable and the Vatican still allows them access to the telescopes. In the past, the clergy were the educated people and so it only made sense that they were given the clerical jobs such as recording dates or tracking star movement. We learned that Pope Francis doesn't live in the normal area where popes usually live in the Vatican.  Instead, he chose to live in the guest house so that he could be closer to the people. He is a Jesuit pope which is very interesting because usually Jesuits won't take leadership positions in the church because they want to be close to the people. The fact that the Vatican is so insistent on having scientists study astronomy is a great example of how the church isn't against science. You would think that the church would be against it, but they have their own team of people studying up on the universe and the ways that it could affect the Catholic Church. I also like how not only does the Vatican have scientific people, but many of them are clergy. This shows how there must not be as much of a disconnect between religion and science as many people believe.