A member of our Vatican Observatory community, Fr Bill Stoeger, died of cancer last month. I could say that he was both the smartest man and the holiest man I have known, but he would have rejected that characterisation out of hand. So I will only say that his goodness and his genius never ceased to move me. He’s the only person I know who could work the mathematics of the Big Bang, and also direct retreats for women Religious. Bill’s religious faith did not control the science he did, but how he did it. More often than not he collaborated with scientists from the developing world. And he showed a special patience with those members of our scientific community who could be brilliant but eccentric and sometimes hard to deal with. His scientific output was astonishing. At Cambri