Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: galileo's "reprieve"

Not that I want to start a war, but the exoneration was actually a bit of
a sham, since if you really understand what the whole thing was about,
and the trial had been held again now, Galileo still would have been
wrong. He simply did not have a valid demonstration of his claim, and
without that, he didn't have a leg to stand on. He was not condemn, but
he was punished, for violating church authority, not for any scientific
issue.

cheers

On Wed, 27 Nov 1996, Steve Luzader wrote:

In response to Don Metz's query about the Catholic Church officially
exonerating Galileo, I can at least provide a date. Here's a quote
from an article in the Baltimore Sun from Nov. 1, 1992:

"Pope John Paul II yesterday formally proclaimed that the
Roman Catholic Church erred in condemning the astronomer
Galileo for holding that the earth was not the center of
the universe."

That's the first sentence (paragraph) in a rather short article. It
doesn't give any of the exact text, but it does provide a date which
could be used to dig out more information.
By the way, I believe the Church had unofficially recognized its
error long ago. I can't provide any documentation, but I think
Galileo's writings were removed from the Index over 100 years ago,
so it was legal to read, teach, and hold his beliefs. But there was
no formal admission of error until 1992.

Steve Luzader
Frostburg State University
Frostburg MD

Don Metz wrote:

Greetings,

Recently (in the last few years) the Roman Catholic church issued a
statement exonerating Galileo. Does anyone on the list know where I
can get a copy of the statement or perhaps point me to a reference to
the statement or its release?

Thanks



Don Metz Phone: 204-786-9241
Collegiate Division Fax: 204-775-1942
University of Winnipeg email: dmetz@collegiate.uwinnipeg.ca
515 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, MB
R3B 2E9 Canada