Reasons for Hope

08/04/2023

"When God is so silent in our prayers, it does not mean that He does not care for us. When God remains silent in our prayers, it is because He listens to us. And when He listens, He takes all our questions to His heart."

-Most Rev. Raul B. Dael, DD
Bishop of Tandag

Homily | Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
April 7, 2023





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02/04/2023

Meet the Venerable who discovered the genetic basis of Down's syndrome, which he named trisomy 21 - Venerable Dr. Jérôme Lejeune (13 June 1926 – 3 April 1994). Jérôme Lejeune was born in 1926 in Montrouge, a Parisian suburb. He studied medicine and became a researcher in 1952, eventually becoming an international expert for France on atomic radiation. In 1958, while working in Professor Turpin’s laboratory, Dr Jérôme Lejeune discovered the genetic cause of what was then known as Mongolism: an extra chromosome in pair 21. On 26th January 1959, the Academy of Science published his scientific work (Jérôme Lejeune, Marthe Gautier and Raymond Turpin. Human chromosomes in tissue culture. C. R. Acad. Sciences, 26th January 1959). This condition would henceforth be called Trisomy 21.

For the first time in the world, a link had been established between an intellectual disability and a chromosome abnormality. Parents of children with Down syndrome could now know that their children’s’ condition was not hereditary. He later discovered the cause of many other chromosome abnormalities, thereby opening the way to cytogenetics and modern genetics. Although the results of his research should have helped medicine to advance towards a cure, they are often used to identify children carrying these conditions as early as possible, usually with the aim of terminating pregnancy. Lejeune was propelled to the forefront of advocating for the protection of the unborn with Down syndrome. He gave hundreds of conferences and interviews across the globe in defense of life. He died of cancer on the 3rd of April 1994, Easter morning, 33 days after his appointment as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

29/03/2023

Fr. Stanley L. Jaki (1924-2009)
Physicist & Priest

In his books, he argued that the scientific enterprise did not become viable and self-sustaining until its incarnation in Christian medieval Europe, and that the advancement of science was indebted to the Christian understanding of creation.

27/03/2023

Mathematician, Scientist and a blessed in Church known for formula for the nth derivative of a composition of functions - Bl. Francesco Faà di Bruno (29 March 1825 - 27 March 1888)

Faa di Bruno was an Italian priest and advocate of the poor, a leading mathematician of his era and a noted religious musician. He is best known for Faà di Bruno's formula on derivatives of composite functions. His work was mainly related to elimination theory and to the theory of elliptic functions. He was also the author of about 40 original articles on Mathematics which includes the exhaustive treatise on the theory and applications of elliptic functions. In recognition of his achievements as a mathematician, the degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on him by the Universities of Paris and Turin. While carrying out his career responsibilities, Faà di Bruno also became actively involved in the social outreach to the poor being developed by leading figures of the Catholic Church in Turin. He became a close friend of St. John Bosco, and helped establish refuges for the elderly and the poor. He was declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI in 1971, and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988.
churchandscience

26/03/2023

Born on 26thMarch, Missionary Catholic priest from Belgium, scientist, and founder of the first Scientific Society in India - Fr. Eugène Lafont (26 Mar 1837 - 10 May 1908). Fr. Lafont was a Belgian catholic priest and a missionary to India. He is considered as one of the architects of modern Indian science. He came to Calcutta in 1864 at the age of 27, then joined the St Xavier’s College in 1865 and taught science. Under the guidance of Father Lafont, St. Xavier’s College established meteorological and astronomical observatories and a physical laboratory. He also played an instrumental role in persuading the Calcutta University in initiating undergraduate course in science. With the financial support of Mahendra Lal Sircar, Lafont founded in 1876 the "Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science". He also practiced religion with equal zeal and opposed the idea that science and religion cannot go together. He believed that truth of one kind cannot be opposed to truth of another kind. His sermons at St. Thomas Church, as a Vicar, were so popular that they even attracted non-Catholics as well.

21/03/2023

Indian Syro-Malabar Catholic priest & Agricultural scientist known for developing high yielding banana saplings - Fr. Dr. Mathew Maleparambil (04 Feb 1951 - 22 Mar 2015)

He was born in Ezhacherry, near Palai where he had his primary education. He was ordained a priest in 1975 and was appointed as the principal of St Thomas College in 2001 and later took over as the principal of BVM Holy Cross College, Cherpunkal. He secured a doctorate in botany from Calicut University when tissue culture was giving new vigor to the agriculture sector. He kept on top of agriculture research that was entering new horizons with the help of biotechnology toward the end of the 20th century. He not only mastered the technique of producing thousands of saplings from a tiny portion of a plant but taught it to his numerous students. His research helped to produce healthy and high yielding banana saplings. Father also wrote a book titled 'Biotechnology: Uthbhavam Valarcha Vikasam' on the origin and development of Biotechnology.

20/03/2023

MARCH 20: THE PATRON AGAINST CALUMNY
Saint Jan Velfin
Priest and Martyr
Died: 1393
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He is more popularly known as Saint John Nepomucene. He was a Bohemian priest and martyr. The Bohemian king demanded him to tell what the queen confessed to him. He refused. This angered the king. He ordered Jan to be thrown to the river. The saint drowned making him the First Martyr of the Seal of the Confessional. He is the patron saint against calumny (false accusations). Old calendars celebrate his memorial every May 16.

18/03/2023

Catholic Priest known in the United States as ‘Padre of the Roses’ - Fr. George Schoener (Mar 21, 1864 - Oct 2, 1941).

Fr. Schoener was a German-born Roman Catholic priest who became known in the United States as the "Padre of the Roses" for his experiments in rose breeding, especially in the use of wild species. Some roses he bred were over twenty feet tall; another was almost black; and one had petals with two colors, yellow on top and red underneath. He also experimented with different fruits. A rose-apple, a raspberry with vanilla flavor, and an apple with the flavor and color of an orange are but some of his hybrids. In 1938, Schoener left Santa Barbara and joined University of Santa Clara. By this time he had over 5000 different varieties of roses.

Rosa 'Schoener's Nutkana' is a deep pink rose variety named after Father George Schöner in 1930. The other rose raised by Schoener that perpetuates his memory is 'Arrillaga' introduced in 1929.

16/03/2023

Catholic priest who developed the Mercalli Intensity Scale for measuring earthquakes. Fr. Giuseppe Mercalli (21 May 1850 - 19 March 1914). He was an Italian volcanologist and catholic priest, and a professor of Natural Sciences at the seminary of Milan. He later became a professor of geology at the University of Catania during the late 1880s and then at Naples University. He was also the director of the Vesuvius Observatory until the time of his death. He is best known for developing the Mercalli intensity scale for measuring earthquakes. Mercalli also observed eruptions of the volcanoes Stromboli and Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands. His descriptions of these eruptions became the basis for two indices of the Volcanic Explosivity Index: 1 - Strombolian eruption, and 2 - Vulcanian eruption.

The Mercalli intensity scale was modified by Harry 0. Wood and Frank Neumann during 1931 as the Mercalli- Wood-Neumann (MWN) scale, this was again later modified by Charles Richter, developer of the Richter scale as Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MM or MMI).

14/03/2023

Did you know the Carina Nebula was discovered by a Catholic Monk in 1752? - Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (15 March 1713 – 21 March 1762)

The Carina Nebula is a large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina, located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. It got the attention of the world following its Vibrant image captured by the James Webb Telescope. The nebula is approximately 8,500 light-years from Earth. This was discovered by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille on 25 January 1752. Abbé Lacaille was a French astronomer, geodesist & Catholic Monk who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good Hope. Lacaille observed over 10,000 stars using just a half-inch refracting telescope. In 1754, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was also an honorary member of the academies of
Saint Petersburg and Berlin, the Royal Society of London and the Royal Society of Göttingen, and the Institute of Bologna. He carried out calculations on comet orbits and was responsible for giving Halley's Comet its name. The crater "La Caille '' on the Moon
and Asteroid 9135 Lacaille is named after him.

14/03/2023

14/03/2023