Vatican Statue of Galileo CANCELED???

[Galileo Galilei]

Vatican Statue of Galileo CANCELED???



Good heavens: Vatican rehabilitating Galileo

The Associated Press

Published: December 23, 2008

VATICAN CITY: Galileo Galilei is going from heretic to hero.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/23/europe/EU-Vatican-Rehabilitating-Galileo.php



"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."



THIS CONTRADICTS PRIOR REPORTS



Galileo statue to be installed at the Vatican

Vatican City, Mar 6, 2008 / 07:10 am (CNA).

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=11992



"The Vatican plans to erect a statue of the 16th century scientist Galileo in the Vatican gardens, the Times reports.



The statue will stand near the apartment in which the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was incarcerated while awaiting trial in 1633. He was charged with advocating heliocentrism, the theory of Copernicus that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Though he was not tortured or executed, as some believe, he was forced to recant by the Roman Inquisition.



Nicola Cabibbo, a nuclear physicist who heads the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, explained the motive for the statue. “The Church wants to close the Galileo affair and reach a definitive understanding not only of his great legacy but also of the relationship between science and faith,” he said.



Professor Cabibbo said that the statue was appropriate because Galileo had been one of the founders of the Lincei Academy, a forerunner of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, in 1603.



The statue installation, which is being privately funded, precedes a series of celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s invention of the telescope. Events include a Vatican conference on Galileo to be attended by 40 international scientists and a re-examination of the Galileo trial at a Florence institute run by the Society of Jesus, some of whose members were on the tribunal that declared Galileo suspect of heresy."



IF THIS NEW REPORT IS TRUE, WE NEED TO PROTEST



THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!



TAKE TO THE STREETS!!



WAKE UP!!!

[pacelli]

IF THIS NEW REPORT IS TRUE, WE NEED TO PROTEST



THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS!



TAKE TO THE STREETS!!



WAKE UP!!!


Take to the streets over a... statue?

:confused::rolleyes:

[Galileo Galilei]

Take to the streets over a... statue?

:confused::rolleyes:

This is a big deal. Galileo is the greatest revolutionary in human history. If Galileo were more popular, the Ron Paul Revolution would be a snap.

[pacelli]

This is a big deal. Galileo is the greatest revolutionary in human history. If Galileo were more popular, the Ron Paul Revolution would be a snap.

You don't think that Giordano Bruno was more of a revolutionary?

[torchbearer]

Kepler was up there too... Copernicus...
democritus...

[nate895]

Last I checked the Vatican was dedicated to honoring great religious men, last I checked Galileo Galilei was a man dedicated to astronomy, not Catholicism.

[nobody's_hero]

We can't even get people to go to the streets over the fact that the money in their savings accounts is worthless.

[Agent CSL]

http://home.att.net/~alanmania65/onoz_omg2.gif

[Galileo Galilei]

You don't think that Giordano Bruno was more of a revolutionary?

Bruno was more radical than Galileo, but not as revolutionary. Bruno was so radical that he lost his ability to persuade. Galileo pushed being radical to the limit while at the same time preserving enough conservatism to maximize persuassion.

[Galileo Galilei]

Kepler was up there too... Copernicus...
democritus...

Kepler and Copernicus were great men, but neither were like Galileo.

Kepler was a poor communicator, his books were very long and tedious to read. Hence not many read them. For example, Descartes never even heard of Kepler's laws. But finally, the core of Kepler's ideas were used by Isaac Newton after they had been checked out for accuracy (which was a LOAD of work).

Copernicus was not revolutionary at all. He could have published his book in around 1515, but chose to wait until he was on his death bed in 1543. After it was published, it did not cause a revolution. It was not read much by the general public, but most professional astronomers read it. They mostly didn't agree with the heliocentrism but still felt it was a worthy well written book that had other value as well.

[Galileo Galilei]

Last I checked the Vatican was dedicated to honoring great religious men, last I checked Galileo Galilei was a man dedicated to astronomy, not Catholicism.

The Catholic Church now says Galileo was a man of faith:

Vatican official says Galileo was a man of faith
By Cindy Wooden
Posted: 12/5/2008

ROME (CNS) -- Fourteen years after Pope John Paul II said the Catholic Church erred when it condemned the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Vatican secretary of state said the astronomer was "a man of faith" who recognized God as creator of the cosmos.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state, spoke briefly Nov. 26 at the opening of a Rome conference titled, "Science 400 years after Galileo Galilei," designed to bring scientists, ethicists and other experts together to discuss the role of ethics in scientific research.

The cardinal said recent studies and the Vatican's own review of the Inquistion trial of Galileo "have shed light on the shortcomings of churchmen tied to the mentality of their age," but also gave people a more accurate understanding of Galileo's beliefs.

"Galileo, a man of science, also cultivated with love his faith and his deep religious convictions," Cardinal Bertone said, repeating Pope Benedict XVI's statement that "Galileo Galilei was a man of faith who saw nature as a book written by God."

In 1992, Pope John Paul said the church had erred in condemning Galileo for asserting that the Earth revolved around the sun.

After being found guilty of "vehement suspicion of heresy"' by the Roman Inquisition at the age of 69, Galileo spent his remaining eight years under house arrest.

The United Nations has proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to observe the cosmos.

In addition to publishing the text of Cardinal Bertone's remarks Nov. 26, the Vatican newspaper ran an article titled "Thank you, Galileo" on its front page.

Written by Jesuit Father Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, the article expressed several hopes for the Galileo anniversary year: that it would encourage people to consider seriously the relationship between faith and science; lead scientists to recognize the role faith played in Galileo's life; and lead theologians to recognize the contributions Galileo made to the church's attitude toward science.

"I think the Galileo case will never be closed in a way satisfactory to everyone," Father Funes wrote in L'Osservatore Romano. "The dramatic clash of some churchmen with Galileo has left wounds that are still open."

Still, he said, when errors and misunderstandings are confronted, they can lead to clarification and a deeper level of understanding.

"In that sense, I hope that what was -- and perhaps still is -- an area of conflict can become the ground for an encounter and dialogue," Father Funes wrote.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told reporters Nov. 25 that he hoped to find a scholarly institution willing to publish a critical edition of all of the documentation related to Galileo's trial.

Although he was placed under house arrest, "Galileo was never condemned" officially, the archbishop said. "The pope did not sign the condemnation because the cardinals could not agree."

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=7316

[Galileo Galilei]

Kepler was up there too... Copernicus...
democritus...

I forgot to comment on Democritus.

Here's a great Democritus trivia question....

Guess who Karl Marx did his PhD dissertation on....?

You got it, Democritus!

That ought to make you blood boil, eh.

(Marx was an athiest, and Democritus could be used to support athiesm)

I am a big fan of Democritus. He was an opponent of Plato. But it is too bad that Plato and his pro-government followers had most of Democritus' books burned.

[torchbearer]

I forgot to comment on Democritus.

Here's a great Democritus trivia question....

Guess who Karl Marx did his PhD dissertation on....?

You got it, Democritus!

That ought to make you blood boil, eh.

(Marx was an athiest, and Democritus could be used to support athiesm)

I am a big fan of Democritus. He was an opponent of Plato. But it is too bad that Plato and his pro-government followers had most of Democritus' books burned.



for some reason that reminded me of a documentary I saw on Kepler.
It was his devotion to religion that almost kept him from accepting his own findings.
He really wanted the universe to be based on the 5 perfect shapes, which to him, would have proven god existed.
He spents a lot of time trying to make his planetary motions fit....

It wasn't until later that he gave up on the pythagorean religious thingy (http://space.about.com/od/astronomerbiographies/a/pythagorasbio_2.htm).
(the 5th secret perfect shape supposedly represented the cosmos)

[nate895]

The Catholic Church now says Galileo was a man of faith:

Vatican official says Galileo was a man of faith
By Cindy Wooden
Posted: 12/5/2008

ROME (CNS) -- Fourteen years after Pope John Paul II said the Catholic Church erred when it condemned the 17th-century astronomer Galileo Galilei, the Vatican secretary of state said the astronomer was "a man of faith" who recognized God as creator of the cosmos.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state, spoke briefly Nov. 26 at the opening of a Rome conference titled, "Science 400 years after Galileo Galilei," designed to bring scientists, ethicists and other experts together to discuss the role of ethics in scientific research.

The cardinal said recent studies and the Vatican's own review of the Inquistion trial of Galileo "have shed light on the shortcomings of churchmen tied to the mentality of their age," but also gave people a more accurate understanding of Galileo's beliefs.

"Galileo, a man of science, also cultivated with love his faith and his deep religious convictions," Cardinal Bertone said, repeating Pope Benedict XVI's statement that "Galileo Galilei was a man of faith who saw nature as a book written by God."

In 1992, Pope John Paul said the church had erred in condemning Galileo for asserting that the Earth revolved around the sun.

After being found guilty of "vehement suspicion of heresy"' by the Roman Inquisition at the age of 69, Galileo spent his remaining eight years under house arrest.

The United Nations has proclaimed 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to observe the cosmos.

In addition to publishing the text of Cardinal Bertone's remarks Nov. 26, the Vatican newspaper ran an article titled "Thank you, Galileo" on its front page.

Written by Jesuit Father Jose Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, the article expressed several hopes for the Galileo anniversary year: that it would encourage people to consider seriously the relationship between faith and science; lead scientists to recognize the role faith played in Galileo's life; and lead theologians to recognize the contributions Galileo made to the church's attitude toward science.

"I think the Galileo case will never be closed in a way satisfactory to everyone," Father Funes wrote in L'Osservatore Romano. "The dramatic clash of some churchmen with Galileo has left wounds that are still open."

Still, he said, when errors and misunderstandings are confronted, they can lead to clarification and a deeper level of understanding.

"In that sense, I hope that what was -- and perhaps still is -- an area of conflict can become the ground for an encounter and dialogue," Father Funes wrote.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told reporters Nov. 25 that he hoped to find a scholarly institution willing to publish a critical edition of all of the documentation related to Galileo's trial.

Although he was placed under house arrest, "Galileo was never condemned" officially, the archbishop said. "The pope did not sign the condemnation because the cardinals could not agree."

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/article.asp?ID=7316

I never said he wasn't, but so are many great people throughout history. That doesn't mean that they should have statues in a place that is dedicated to people who are known for their religious works.