Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Vatican daily recalls 40th anniversary of first lunar landing

Vatican City, Jul 20, 2009 / 04:57 pm (CNA).- L’Osservatore Romano published a series of articles today commemorating the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969, by Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Michael Collins.

The Vatican newspaper called it “an historic event” that was “truly colossal, costly and difficult,” with “hundreds of millions of spectators throughout the world” following the landing on black and white television.

It went on to recall Armstrong’s famous words at setting foot on the moon: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” “The safe return of the astronauts to earth was a triumph for them. This journey was compared to that of Christopher Columbus and became the main theme of news reports, science and literature,” the paper reported.

L'Osservatore also recalled the message sent by Pope Paul VI to the astronauts on the night of July 20, after peering at the moon through the “Specola Vaticana” telescope at Castel Gandolfo. In that message, the Pope said, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to all men of good will! … and honor to you, the men who have carried out this great space enterprise!”

“Honor, greetings and blessings to you, conquerors of the moon, the soft light of our nights and our dreams! With your living presence bring to it the voice of the spirit, the hymn to God, our Creator and our Father,” the Pope added.

The Vatican daily then recalled Pope Paul VI’s remarks at the Wednesday General Audience of July 23, 1969, in which he stressed the important need to reflect deeply on this event and respond from the faith. People should always seeks the encounter between its “humble doctrine and the marvelous riches of modern scientific thought” in the same way that the truth, “while diverse and ordered in different ways, is always one and in agreement with itself, and the benefit that results from such an encounter is always reciprocal for the faith.”
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See also from CBN, "Communion on the Moon: July 20, 1969"

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 3:23 PM