What I’ve Learned About Making “the Ask”
by George V. Coyne, S.J.
President, Vatican Observatory Foundation
“Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened unto you” says the Holy Book. It sounds pretty easy. I found that it is not, even when I trust that the Holy Spirit is doing his job. For me to say “thank you” is the best way to approach a prospective donor even before explaining one’s needs; and even that is not easy. A sincere expression of thanks is truly a profound act of humility, an acknowledgement of one’s total dependence. “Thank you for allowing me to visit you,” “Thank you for allowing me to tell you about my work,” are expressions which put the beggar in the hands of the prospective donor just like those who in the Gospels sought healing from Jesus. Jesus’ miraculous healings always followed upon an expression of faith, a total dependence upon and trust in him.
When I first began to seek funds to build an astronomical telescope in Arizona for the Vatican Observatory, I wondered how my initial thanks could be best expressed. The Vatican Observatory has no natural, ready-made support group. We have no parishioners, essentially no alumni, no neighborhood alliance. After much prayer and pondering with my fellow Jesuits at the Observatory I decided upon a two-fold approach: seek out American Catholics who, although not technically or scientifically inclined, would be proud that the Church had a modern research facility on the front lines of cutting-edge science and/or seek out those who had an interest in the technology of making telescopes. As it turned out the major donors who supported the construction of the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope filled both categories. They were devout Catholics with a technical background. But even then the approach was not easy since, in all cases, the history of their giving was to more glaring and immediate human needs: the poor, the hungry, the homeless, the sick. After those initial attempts at asking for support, I came to realize that my gratitude in the Lord’s name was most meaningful when it was addressed to those who see that, in addition to the relief of direct human suffering, we must hunger and thirst also for that which makes us most in the image of God: the arts, music and the sciences whereby we seek to understand ourselves in this universe which God has made our home.
Fr. George Coyne, S.J. Coyne was appointed Director of the Vatican Observatory by Pope John Paul I in 1978, and in that same year he also became Associate Director of the UA Steward Observatory in Tucson, AZ. He currently serves as President of theVatican Observatory Foundation and travels extensively as an invited speaker to educational, religious, academic and cultural groups promoting the dialogue between faith and science.