‘We must accept scientific discoveries with humility’: Pope Francis on the moon landing

It was a truly unforgettable night! There we all were in the TV lounge, watching those images arrive on the screen from so far away. We really couldn’t miss the occasion, particularly as we were lucky enough to have a television at the seminary, which in those days was almost a luxury. Even in black and white, the quality of the images was pretty good. It was remarkable to see Neil Armstrong’s footprints in the dust, with the announcer on Argentine TV giving a live translation of the English-language commentary from CBS, the US station in charge of the transmission. And of course there was the moment when the astronaut said the words, transmitted to us in Spanish, that have entered into history: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The excitement!

Some of the boys had already turned on the television by three in the afternoon, when the live broadcast began. It continued well into the small hours, an uninterrupted marathon from the early afternoon on. Suffice it to say that Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface a scant six hours after the landing, when it was nearly midnight in Argentina, and we were all...

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