On Thursday, the Newman Center hosted its major event of the year, a talk by Brother Guy Consolmagno, the curator of the Vatican meteorite collection. An astronomer and Jesuit brother, Consolmagno came to critique Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design. I attended, out of a never satiated desire to learn about religion and its influence on those around me. The Catholic Church wields immense power, and that power impacts me, even as a non-Catholic.

Consolmagno’s discussion argued that Hawking’s refutation of God destroyed the idea of a god within the world, which is the god that Catholics should oppose, Consolmagno said. The genius of the God of Abraham, he argued, is that he’s a “god beyond the universe”: Only a supernatural god, outside Newton’s universe can give meaning to life, and as a result is the only one to worship.

He didn’t disagree with Hawking, just thought Hawking didn’t understand. Science no longer deals with questions of origin, but instead with questions of procedure. Science didn’t look to solve why we are here or where we came from, but it wants to set up answers from hypotheses. The answer reached is the one searched for.

Consolmagno concluded, “I believe in God not because he’s the logical conclusion; I believe in God not because I have no other reason why the universe started. I believe in God because I have experienced Him.”

Consolmagno also argued against a literal reading of the Bible, stating at one point, “No one would use Genesis to teach science. I would hope.” And that comforted me. So much of what gets presented in the news are overly vocal Christians who don’t speak for the majority of the population, so seeing that old religions have the capacity for change was a welcome idea.

The Catholic Church — as most venerated organizations — has trouble changing. That’s not to say it can’t change; it can and has various times throughout history. It accepts the world is not flat. It knows the Earth doesn’t sit as the center of the universe. In 2011, the Church switched translations of mass, dropping words used for 40 years in favor of new phrases closer to the original Latin (OK, so that one might be a step backward, but still change).

But what will the conclave that begins Tuesday be looking for in the new pope? How will his role change in the 21st century? Pope Benedict XVI, who served for eight years, started the papal Twitter account, tweeting such lines as “How can faith in Jesus be lived in a world without hope?” and “What family Christmas tradition from your childhood do you still remember?” He’s the first pope in 600 years to take off the holy mitre. During his term, he staunchly opposed same-sex marriage and homosexuality, fought against stem cell research and kept women from being ordained as priests. He also believed condoms couldn’t be used to fight AIDS. Those are some big red Prada shoes to fill.

The conclave that begins Tuesday will select from a myriad of candidates from all over the world. Will an African pope bring a more open stance on contraception to Catholicism as a whole? Will an American pope look to equality for homosexuals? Will an Asian pope be more open to women as priests?

It’s unlikely. Although brothers like Consolmagno illustrate a more enlightened church than generations past, they remain staunchly conservative on many of today’s social issues. And that open-mindedness doesn’t always extend beyond the Vatican to Catholics across the globe. The world holds 1.18 billion Catholics, people from all countries and all pasts. To predict how a single Catholic will view an issue remains difficult, especially if that Catholic happens to be elected as the new pope. Even those choices who have more liberal views will be likely to suppress them when on a large scale. Personal beliefs are easy to keep; universal directives for an entire religion, the second-largest in the world, get a bit more difficult to change.

Sarah is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].