An Asteroid for a Pope: The Cult of Personality Reaches the Heavens
The National Catholic Register (NCRegister) portal reports that the Vatican Observatory has named an asteroid “Gioacchinopecci” in honor of Pope Leo XIII, who refounded the observatory in 1891. The article also mentions asteroids named for other figures associated with the Vatican Observatory, including cardinals and Jesuit astronomers, and briefly describes the history of the observatory’s relocation due to light pollution. The piece presents this as a celebration of the Church’s historical patronage of science. However, beneath this seemingly innocent tribute lies a profound distraction from the true state of the Church and the spiritual crisis that has consumed it since the conciliar revolution, revealing a neo-church more concerned with its public image in the natural order than with the salvation of souls.






