Vatican rehabilitating Galileo

We have alot to thank Sir Isaak Newton for. He took both Theories,of Galileo and Copernicus (they both were incorrect) and deduced the forces of Gravity. With out the two former though would that have happened? Hmmm. Who cares really what the Vatican has to say anyway. It's just sad that He had to be treated that way in the first place. I would not have wanted to be there at that time.

Maybe in a few thousand years they'll take back the remarks the pope just made about gender roles ...

It's nice to see some people giving the Church the benefit of the doubt. Others are going to hate it no matter the good they see done by people like Mother Teresa and St. John Bosco (these are not isolated cases, BTW, history is full of them)--who lived by the Church's teachings.

There have been many mistakes made by fallible men within the Church, but the principles of it are good ones and have not changed with time, in spite of all of the atrocious mistakes made by some in it. I do believe that more good has been done than bad; one only need to study their history (reading articles by hostile media does not count).

Regarding faith, reason and science, they should compliment one another and the Church believes this--in spite of past gaffs.

E.g., Catholic scientists who have made great contributions to our society include: Blaise Pascal in mathematics; Gregor Mendel (a monk) in genetics; Louis Pasteur in biology; John von Neumann in computer science; Enrico Fermi in physics.

People are people and have capability of great good or great evil (Mother Teresa vs. Hitler). Being a Catholic doesn't make someone automatically bad any more than being a Pagan make them a human sacrificer, or a communist a violater of human rights (e.g., Stalin).

The Vatican is stupid, evil and irrelevant.

I don't really blame them, they make a lot of money but for the morons that listen to anything the Vatican says....man oh man, time to wake up.

The Church has a lot more to do with raping children than they ever will with God.

Way for them to catch up to the 16th century. They've only got about 400 years more years to catch up on.

Too late.

See, the Catholic Church can forgive you...but only hundreds of years after you're dead.

Galileo Good, Roman Catholic Oppression Bad. Good post U, voted it up.

PERSONALLY, I DON´T THINK IT IS RIGHT TO BLAME THE CHURCH FOR WHAT THEY DID AROUND THAT TIME. IF YOU GUYS KNOW YOUR HISTORY WELL, YOU SHOULD REMEBER THAT DURING THIS TIME, THE CHURCH WAS THE CUSTODIAN OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE, SCIENCE, MEDICINE, PHILOSOPHY, JUST NAME IT. SO FOR ONE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING REVOLUTIONARY AND DIFFERENT AT THAT TIME, IT WOULD BE SOMETHING OUTRAGIOUS. SO, THE CHURCH DID WHAT THEY HAD TO SO IN ORDER TO PROTECT KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENCE AS IT WAS KNOWN AT THIS POINT IN TIME. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, APART FROM GALILEO, THERE WERE OTHERS THAT CAME UP WITH DIFFERENT FORMULAS OR THEORIES THAT COULD EASILY JEOPARDIZE OR THREATEN THE HUMAN EXISTENCE AND KNOWLEDGE AT THE TIME, BUT THE CHURCH ALSO HAD TO INTERVEN. THUS, THE CHURCH WAS LIKE A WATCH-DOG OF HUMAN EXISTENCE AT THE TIME. .....SO NOW, BY THE CHURCH APOLOGIZING NOW, IT IS A WAY OF SAYING THAT WE RECOGNIZE OUR MISTAKES AND HAVE LEARNED FROM THEM. SO LET US MOVE ON. I THINK, EACH ONE OF US HAS TO LEARN THIS SAME ATTITUDE FROM THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

In his great series, "The Ascent of Man," Dr. Jacob Bronowski examined the Galileo affair. He even went to the Vatican library and looked at the court documents. The most astonishing thing to me about the case was that the crucial document used to convict him was almost certainly a forgery. Even using its own draconian rules, the Inquisition did not have a strong enough case against Galileo to convict him without forging evidence. The Vatican might want to apologize for that, too.

Funny how in Islam the pursuit of knowledge and science is encouraged and rewarded, yet in Christianity science is seen as an evil.

"The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith"

If "the faith" was solid then NOTHING could be dangerous to it.

But hey, what the hell, let's ruin the life of a genius because he won't fall in line and be a sheep.

Galileo from the grave: "Thanks for the props pope! And hey, no hard feelings for fu**in' up my world while I was alive. Its all good, no really."

Only took 19,566 Sundays to see the light
I thing the Vatican should go on a 20,000 week sabbatical from speaking so it can hear God and Creation

heard the song If loving you is wrong...

I think it's historical revisionism. The Catholic Church wants to paint Galileo as being part of the fold, ignoring the fact that they actively tore apart everything he stood for. The world has improved in spite of Catholicism, not because of it. Please, institution of child molesting thieves, go away and leave history alone.

religion is trailing science by centuries. sometimes it appears that they're trying to catch up, but i wouldn't bet on those odds.

Hmmm....I think they are trying to apologize....although I don't know them that well. At least they are coming around to seeing 'reason'? Not to mention logic. Looks like an admission. Great post!

Bonitas non est pessimis esse meliorem.

Pareo Nullus

I noticed that Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict are doing a lot to clean up errors that the church made, and should have been formally taken care of decades ago.

It's like everyone just forgot that stuff was out there and had been rejected. Pope Benedict is totally down with science and many things that we face today. And he is trying to take measures to make things right.

Way to little, way too late. This money grubbing, power crazed boys club has been telling lies since its inception in order to control the masses by keeping them ignorant. When you're in the business of selling salvation to the weak - stay there. Leave science to scientists who are interested in the facts & not the fables you've penned to justify your existence.

Looks like more sucking up. Has anyone noticed how many articles there have been about science and religion co-existing peacefully? Galilei was correct to begin with. Religion cannot make someone more correct by recognizing this fact. Is this the Pope's version of revisionism?

Its about time this guy is recognized for his acts of genius.......

I'm operating from a base position of ignorance. I knew of Galileo, of course, but it was new to me he had a row with the church. A big deal in that period. I don't recall this history well enough to dredge up the fact he was imprisoned. As I'm not Catholic, I have no insight from that direction either.

However, having read the article what I found striking is the effort the church is making at reconcillation. They're admitting that errors were made. While the Pope is considered the Vicar of Christ the church is administered by men. Men are falable.

The amazing thing about a dancing bear isn't how well he dances, but that he dances at all. Looks like the Vatican is moving forward. It may be slow coming, but it's progress.

The Vatican is pretty slow about things. I think it was 1998 when they officially recognized that the Earth revolved around the Sun.