Venite Prandete

  SISTER MIRIAM MICHAEL STIMSON OP CATHOLIC SCIENTISTS DIED 15th JUNE 2002 Marian Emma Stimson was born into a devout Catholic family in Chicago on December 14, 1913. She had an interest in health and medicine – her brother suffered from polio, she had a sister with a heart condition and her mother had such high blood pressure after she gave birth to twins that she suffered from memory loss. In 1935, she joined the Adrian Dominican Sisters, taking the name Sister Miriam Michael Stimson OP. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from Siena Heights College in 1936. She continued her studies at the Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnatti, where she received her M.S. in 1939. She then joined the chemistry faculty at Siena Heights College, simultaneously working toward her Ph.D. at Institutum Divi Thomae, which she completed in 1948. She earned her Doctorate and engaged in teaching and research, studying cancer and wound healing treatments. Notably, she was instrumental in the invention of Prep...

  GALILEO      Image: brittanica.com Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaluti de’ Galilei was born on 15th February 1564 and died on 8th January 1642. I have taken his story from an essay by Donald de Marco in which the dispute regarding heliocentrism between Galileo and the Church is analysed. (1) As De Marco observed: “The dispute between Galileo and the Catholic Church is both complex and controversial. It is complex because it involves a host of issues and a multitude of volatile personalities. It is controversial because its interpreters invariably attach deeply felt positive or negative evaluations to these issues. “Bertold Brecht’s play, Galileo, whose cast calls for a ‘fat prelate’, a ‘Furious Monk’ and an ‘Old Cardinal; paintings that depict the subjection of Galileo to various forms of humiliation that never took place; and certain television dramatisations that pander to popular prejudice, are typical one-sided representations that take the part of Galileo against a p...

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS DIED 24th MAY 1543.      Image: The Torun Portrait, (1580) Anonymous, kept in Torun Town Hall, Poland, (Wikipedia). NICOLAUS COPERNICUS DIED 24th MAY 1543. Nicolaus Copernicus died on 24th May 1543. As his theories on heliocentrism are intertwined with the theories postulated by Galileo and, as both scientists have been opportunistically represented as signifying attitudes and events that did not occur, I have set out posts on both scientists, with a separate post on Galileo. A recurring theme in modern discourse is the sweeping dismissal of the Catholic position on rational thought by way of statements such as “the Catholic Church is anti-science”. The example of Galileo and Copernicus is frequently thrown in as evidence of the backwardness of evil Catholic clergy and the authoritarian nature of the Catholic Church, importing additional assumptions as to the gullibility of the Catholic faithful, incapable of thinking on their own initiative and waitin...