On Thursday 7 April 2011 the American Academy in Rome hosted a public program on “Science and Faith” in its Conversations That Matter series. Academy Director Christopher S. Celenza (FAAR’94) discussed the interrelationship between scientific and religious inquiry with bestselling author Brother Guy Consolmagno, SJ, astronomer at the Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana).

This was the first event in a week-long celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's demonstration and naming of the "telescope" on Rome's Gianicolo hill (14 April 1611), on what is now the grounds of the American Academy.