Why so many Catholics in scifi? Why not? The Jesuits have 35 lunar craters named for members.

Jesuits have long played an important role in science-fiction stories. For decades, some of speculative fiction’s highest awards have rained down on stories of science and faith, and many of the most famous star the Catholic Church. But for all that mutual interest, the image of the spacefaring Jesuit often seems to reinforce how far mutual understanding still has to go. 

This past August, American author Mary Doria Russell announced that Random House is planning a 20th anniversary edition of The Sparrow, the 1996 book that won her the Arthur C. Clarke Award. The plot centers on a certain holy order that decides to send a unilateral mission to an alien world. “The United Nations took years to come to a decision,” the book’s prologue explains, “that the Society of Jesus reached in ten days.”