May 2, 2010

  • Question 242 - Constellations on the Mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe

    Dear Dr. Sungenis,

    I found the attached article signed about the Tilma in the internet. Since I am a physicist myself and a Catholic, I am very much interested in what I have read about the star constellations to be seen on Our Lady’s mantle.

    The published literature, however, is quite unsatisfying and even contradictory, I feel. Obviously, the scientific writing on the Tilma is not yet as developed as in the case of the Shroud of Turin. This gap should be filled, I believe. Also with your article, I have problems to verify what you are writing with respect to the star constellations and St. Hildegard’s cosmology.

    If you do not mind, I would like to ask what the sources are you are using. Moreover, I sometimes read that the constellations are displayed as if seen in a mirror. And what is the precise astronomical argumentation in identifying the stars on the mantle with astronomic constellations? How certain can we are that we are speaking about facts with reference to the constellations on the Tilma?

    I would be very glad if could give me some more detailed explanations or references to serious literature related to the star constellations.  

    Yours sincerely, thanking in advance, and being united in Christo,

    Wolfgang Koch    

     

    R. Sungenis: Wolfgang, thank you for your inquiry. First, just for comparison’s sake, I would also say that the published literature on the Shroud is contradictory, but that doesn’t stop sincere Catholics from pursuing a positive view of the Shroud as representative of Christ. Our quest, of course, is to separate truth from fantasy, and thus, as a scientist (I was a physics major in college) and theologian (for the last 35 years), I have mental reservations about both the Shroud and the Tilma since, to be fair, we do live in a world that is replete with forgeries, deception and delusion. But those doubts are not enough to prohibit me from producing positive evaluations of both events in my published writings, especially considering the miraculous nature of the Tilma.

    As for Hildegard’s cosmology and its relationship to the orientation of the stars on the Tilma, that is my unique contribution to the discussion based on my thorough study of Hildegard’s geocentric cosmology as written in my book, Galileo Was Wrong: The Church Was Right, Volume 2, pages 327-363, fifth edition, 2008. Hildegard has the north-south axis of the universe on a horizontal plane, not a vertical. The Tilma has the same orientation. Both are opposed to modern science’s view that the star Polaris is in a vertical plane with our north pole.

    As for sources, as you may already know, there are a number of books and articles written on the Tilma. I am merely taking the evidence in these numerous sources that the stars on the Tilma are representative of the stars seen in the sky on December 1516 and, if this evidence is true, I am suggesting a more accurate way of representing these stars on the Tilma by superimposing the Tilma on the actual star charts of December 1516. To my amazement, the two are very close if not identical. That, to me, is enough to keep the investigation going, and I’m glad other people are doing so.

    As for your question about “certainty,” that depends on what degree of certainty one has in mind. I would say that, due to the miraculous nature of the Tilma, we have reasonable certainty that, since the star charts for December 1516 match the stars on the Tilma, the connection between the stars and the Tilma is credible enough to teach it as such, but with the qualification that the connection is not absolutely certain. My guide in something of this sort is that the adherents can testify to the connection unless both scientific and ecclesiastical authority say it is definitively fallacious.

    I hope that helps in understanding my position and contribution.