Vatican Gives Galileo An Image Makeover

Church That Once Denounced Astronomer Now Hails Him - In Time To Mark Anniversary Of His Telescope

(AP)  Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero.

The Vatican is recasting the most famous victim of its Inquisition as a man of faith, just in time for the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy next year.

Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Italian astronomer and physicist Sunday, saying he and other scientists had helped the faithful better understand and "contemplate with gratitude the Lord's works."

In May, several Vatican officials will participate in an international conference to re-examine the Galileo affair, and top Vatican officials are now saying Galileo should be named the "patron" of the dialogue between faith and reason.

It's quite a reversal of fortune for Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who made the first complete astronomical telescope and used it to gather evidence that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith, but Galileo defied its warnings. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, later changed to house arrest.

The Church has for years been striving to shed its reputation for being hostile to science, in part by producing top-notch research out of its own telescope.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

But that apparently wasn't enough. In January, Benedict canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza University after a group of professors, citing the Galileo episode and depicting Benedict as a religious figure opposed to science, argued that he shouldn't speak at a public university.

The Galileo anniversary appears to be giving the Vatican new impetus to put the matter to rest. In doing so, Vatican officials are stressing Galileo's faith as well as his science, to show the two are not mutually exclusive.

At a Vatican conference last month entitled "Science 400 Years after Galileo Galilei," the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said Galileo was an astronomer, but one who "lovingly cultivated his faith and his profound religious conviction."

"Galileo Galilei was a man of faith who saw nature as a book authored by God," Bertone said.

The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for Culture, which co-sponsored the conference, went further. Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi told Vatican Radio that Galileo "could become for some the ideal patron for a dialogue between science and faith."

He said Galileo's writings offered a "path" to explore how faith and reason were not incompatible.

The Rev. John Padberg, a church historian and the director of the Institute of Jesuit Sources at St. Louis University, said he suspected the Vatican's new emphasis on Galileo's faith came from the pope himself.

"Pope Benedict XVI is ardently convinced of the congruence of faith and reason, and he is concerned, especially in the present circumstances, of giving reason its due place in the whole scheme of things," he said.

While it is widely accepted that Galileo was a convinced Catholic, Padberg questioned whether he could ever be accepted as some kind of a poster child for the faith and reason debate. "That's going to be a long shot for an awful lot of people, on both sides, by the way," he said.

Benedict, a theologian, has made exploring the faith-reason relationship a key aspect of his papacy, and has directed his daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in particular, to take up the charge.

On Monday, the newspaper published a piece on the possibility of alien life on other planets as well as one on the popes who were "friendly" to astronomy.

Benedict clearly is: In his Sunday blessing, he noted that the Vatican itself has its own meridian — an obelisk in St. Peter's Square — and that astronomy had long been used to signal prayer times for the faithful.

But the Vatican's embrace of Galileo only goes so far.

There were plans earlier this year to give Galileo a permanent place of honor in the Vatican to mark the anniversary of his telescope: a statue, to be located inside the Vatican gardens, donated by the Italian aerospace giant Finmeccanica SpA.

The plans were suspended after some Vatican officials voiced "problems" with the initiative, said Nicola Cabibbo, the president of the Pontifical Council for Science. He declined to elaborate.

Finmeccanica spokesman Roberto Alatri said the Galileo statue was just an idea that never got off the ground.

Italian news reports suggested the Vatican simply didn't want to draw so much permanent attention to the Galileo episode, which 400 years on, still rankles some.

"The dramatic clash between Galileo and some men of the Church left wounds that are still open today," the Vatican's chief astronomer, the Rev. Jose Funes, wrote recently in Osservatore. "The Church in some ways has recognized its errors.

"Maybe it could do better. One can always do better," he wrote.

[sam_gardner]

Hail to Galileo, let us celebrate the giant of the scientific method on leap day, Galileo Day, every leap year.

[brianbwb-2009]

Now that Galileo has been stardust for a couple centuries now, I am sure this changes things.

Idiots, Joey the rat should be apologizing for his stint as a Hitler Youth while he is still alive.

"Tragic mutual incomprehension"??? It obviously was not mutual, Galileo understood the Pope, it was the Pope who obviously lacked the ability to comprehend Galileo.

[caldwellptr]

Luckily, Galileo had no opinion regarding evolution.

[downsteamjim]

I would like to get Bill Clinton ''meaning of is is'' and Pope Benedict 16 ''tragic mutual incomprehension'' to sponsor a symposium on double speak.

[downsteamjim]

smurf: You elected a man on the basis of hope and vague beliefs. That is the same reason people choose messiahs.


toolmangler: Please explian why you think Jesus is dirty?

[endurorob]

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

What the hell is "tragic mutual incomprehension"? The church didn''t like what he was saying so they shut him up and imprisoned him. If the church had the same power today you would see the same things from him.

[Mccarthyaw]

***? So what happens to his supposed soul? He goes from hell to heaven since the Pope decides that he wasn''t a heretic. How dumb.

[rf35]

Trying to reconcile science and Christian religion is a bad idea...any "science" coming out of the Vatican will automatically look suspect, especially when they try and weave religion into it. I''m certain they would ignore any findings that don''t jive with their faith and can''t be explained as just another "mystery of God''s ways." They don''t exactly have a good track record on this subject. Science and Christianity are simply not compatible. Trying to merge them will leave the science looking biased or the faith looking like the silly superstition it is.

[notfooled]

Dear CBS: please stop printing stories favorable to this murdering cult of fake religious charlatan child molesters.

[rational_1]

Let''''s see, it took the Church nearly five-hundred years to figure out the truth, the scientific truth. Today, we have religious folks telling us that evolution is not a fact, that we were just planted here six thousand years ago. Will it take them another five hundred years to figure out what most of us already know?
Posted by fsw3 at 05:03 PM : Dec 23, 2008

Nah, the Catholic Church ran up the white flag on evolution already. The bad taste that the whole Galileo fiasco left in their collective mouths didn''t leave them with much enthusiasm to take on science again. So, the Catholic Church has reconciled with the fact of evolution. The inbred evangelical hillbillies (i.e., Appalachian Americans) playing with rattlesnakes while drinking ''shine... not so much.

[toolmangler-2009]

Will it take the Vatican 400 years to admit that Obama is the Messiah?
Posted by downsteamjim at 06:57 PM : Dec 23, 2008



any way you can dirty a man is ok with you, That is so bush like. I wish you had left My Lord Jesus out of it.

[smurfcrusher]

""Maybe it could do better. One can always do better," he wrote.

Let''''s see, it took the Church nearly five-hundred years to figure out the truth, the scientific truth. Today, we have religious folks telling us that evolution is not a fact, that we were just planted here six thousand years ago. Will it take them another five hundred years to figure out what most of us already know?"

Posted by fsw3

Unlikely even then. For that admission, the church would have to admit we are mere animals, and that the bible was wrong placing us on a pedestal for supernatural reasons. It would also mean there is no such thing as a soul, and that our sense of self-awareness is shared by many creatures, thus creating an ethical quandary.

[smurfcrusher]

downsteamjim, why be stupid? Your candidate lost. Only Republicans claim Obama is a Messiah, probably because they are so resentful of the turkeys they nominated.

Don''t blame Democrats for your stupidity - Democrats hope to IMPROVE education, instead of draining funds from public schools off to the privileged few able to afford private schools.

As far as Galileo is concerned - no surprise here. The church was WRONG once again. This is one reason why religion does not belong in science classrooms - lacking the Scientific Method, religious preachings are doomed to failure.

[downsteamjim]

Will it take the Vatican 400 years to admit that Obama is the Messiah?

[rushlimpdrug]

". . .In May, several Vatican officials will participate in an international conference to re-examine the Galileo affair . . "


OMG!

So are they saying Galileo
could be right after all?

This is blasphemy, I say!

[rushman71]

This kind of reminds me of a Queen''s song

"Galileo (GALILEO)
Galileo (GALILEO)...."