HONG KONG – World-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said yesterday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

Mr. Hawking, author of the best seller “A Brief History of Time,” said John Paul made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican. He did not say when the meeting was held.

Mr. Hawking quoted the pope as saying, “It’s okay to study the universe and where it began. But we should not inquire into the beginning itself because that was the moment of creation and the work of God.”

The scientist then joked that he was glad John Paul did not realize that he had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began.

“I didn’t fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo,” Mr. Hawking said at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

The wheelchair-bound Mr. Hawking, who suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, communicates with an electronic speech synthesizer. Mr. Hawking was asked why his computerized voice has an American accent.

“The voice I use is a very old hardware speech synthesizer made in 1986,” he said. “I keep it because I have not heard a voice I like better and because I have identified with it.”

He said he considered using a machine that gave him a French accent, but didn’t because his wife would divorce him.

But Mr. Hawking said he is shopping for a new system because his current hardware is large and fragile, using components that are no longer made.

“I have been trying to get a software version, but it seems very difficult,” he said.

He urged people with physical disabilities not to give up on their ambitions.

“You can’t afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically,” he said. “People won’t have time for you.”