The Inventiveness Of The Roman Catholic Church In Science: Reflecting Telescope

Not sure, if this will be a reoccurring feature but I'd like to explore a little more the role of the Roman Catholic Church in the development of Western science. Catholicism, of all the organized religions, was possibly the most energetic and committed to science.

A monumental debt is owed to the Church for its work in astronomy, mathematics and other branches of science. For some reason, despite their contributions to the development of science (astronomy, math, physics, philosophy etc.) and reason, the names of these clergymen are often ignored.

I happened upon, which spurred this post, a wiki entry on one Father Niccolo Zucchi.

Zucchi was an astronomer and physicist who invented the reflecting telescope.

Moving on, I'm probably going to post more about the Roman Catholic Church's inventiveness.

Here's a link to Scientus.org discussing the evolution of the reflecting telescope:

"The early history of the reflecting telescope has its surprises. The builder of that first crude telescope, Nicolo Zucchi, and the scientist who published the Mersenne telescope design, Marin Mersenne, were both Catholic priests. The involvement of church scientists in the early development of both the reflecting and refracting telescopes is often missed."