ROME, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital — On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV commemorated the 56th anniversary of the moon landing by visiting the Vatican’s astronomical observatory in Castel Gandolfo and speaking with astronaut Buzz Aldrin.

After completing the Sunday Angelus prayer at his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo, Leo made his way to the observatory within the Pontifical Villas. There, he examined the telescopes that have long facilitated the study of the cosmos from a faith-inspired viewpoint.

The pontiff was accompanied by astronomers and students participating in the traditional summer school organized by the observatory.

This was Pope Leo’s first visit to the observatory, founded in 1891 by Leo XIII. The first vision of it, however, can be traced back to the establishment by Pope Gregory XIII of a commission aimed at studying the scientific data and implications of the calendar reform that took place in 1582.

The Vatican Observatory has generated top-notch research from its scientist-clerics, drawing academics to its meteorite collection, which includes bits of Mars and is considered among the world’s best.

Later Sunday, the pope called astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who shared with Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins the historic 1969 moonwalk.

“This evening, 56 years after the Apollo 11 moon landing, I spoke with the astronaut Buzz Aldrin,” Pope Leo wrote on his X account. “Together we shared the memory of a historic feat, a testimony to human ingenuity, and we reflected on the mystery and greatness of Creation.”

Pope Leo then blessed the astronaut, his family and his collaborators.

There are a few precedents of papal calls to “space.”

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI rang the space station and asked about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faced.

Before Benedict, Pope Paul VI sent a radio message to astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins after their moonwalk, calling them “conquerors of the Moon.”

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