Who is the Pope to talk of humility?

Watching too many Vatican videos always makes me rant. I decided to make a video rant. So this is a vrant against hypocrisy.

The story of Galileo's treatment by the church in the 17th century is well known. A lot less well known is that a story so old has only been drawing to a close in the last 20 years. Or that the current pope appears to have regretfully inherited his predecessor's admission and apology.

The Vatican planned to erect a statue in the grounds of the Vatican garden, near to the apartment where Galileo was held while waiting on his trial in 1633. This gesture was meant to signify the church's rehabilitation of Galileo. Plans were advanced to the stage that an artist had prepared a mould for the statue when the Vatican asked the sponsors to use the money elsewhere. Admitting you are wrong and making an apology is one thing, but forgiveness will be a long time coming. Galileo's remaining problem with the Vatican (as if he cares!) is that they will find it much harder to forgive him for daring to make a fool out of the pope. The Pope requested that his own view put put in Galileo's book. Seeing as he wanted to disprove that view, Galileo had no choice but to put them in the mouth of the one character who held them, while his other characters countered his arguments.

Galileo always claimed surprise at how the church reacted, but he can't have been that surprised. He called his geocentric character Simplicio, apparently after a famous greek philosopher called Simplicius. It can't possibly have been unintentional that simplicio also meant simpleton in Italian. For that, he was made to denounce all his years of work. Work that he knew was right because he had seen it with his own eyes and worked it out with his own mind.

Galileo's abjuration to the Inquisition (1633)

"Wishing to remove from the minds of your Eminences and all faithful Christians this vehement suspicion reasonably conceived against me, I abjure with sincere heart and unfeigned faith, I curse and detest the said errors and heresies, and generally all and every error and sect contrary to the Holy Catholic Church. And I swear that for the future I will neither say nor assert in speaking or writing such things as may bring upon me similar suspicion; and if I know any heretic, or one suspected of heresy, I will denounce him to this Holy Office, or to the Inquisitor and Ordinary of the place in which I may be."

The story of Galileo is useful to keep in mind because it is impossible for a modern human to imagine believing that the planets and sun move around the earth. The Vatican is today treating science as dismissively as it treated Galileo. Without any authority to hold an inquisition it has changed it's tactics and now seeks to question science's very right to question reality.


Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, 1615
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/galileo-tuscany.html

Pope Urban VIII's condemnation of Galileo (Sentencing speech at his trial 1633)
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/galileo/condemnation.html

Excommunicated for his scientific beliefs, Galileo and Kepler article
http://dermottmullan.com/kepler.htm

Report on the La Sapienza speech bu Cardinal Rattzinger in 1990
http://sluggerotoole.com/2008/01/22/that-leads-from-galileo-to-the-atomic-bomb/

Article for proposed (and eventually scrapped) statue
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article3478943.ece

Article about the Vatican shelving plans for the statue 'indefinitely'
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/253318,vatican-shelves-plans-for-gali...

Galileo Galilei
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

Galileo affair
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

Heliocentrism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliocentrism

Nicolaus Copernicus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus

Paul Feyerabend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Feyerabend



Benedict XVI: Science Does Not Explain the Whole Mystery
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwrw92g6Ex8

Pope: Harmony exists between human research and Divine Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41Pp2AJCU8

Benedict XVI: Healthy Secularity in Italy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBAPQZEZp1A

Benedict XVI: New Intellectuals Needed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afx1BHId70U

Puppet Vatican-POPE RATZINGER SLAPS REPORTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvgdS0s56Q

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[Coffeeisnecessary]

Jesus was black!

[DaithiDublin]

@Coffeeisnecessary Well, coffee coloured at the very least! :¬)

[rcarnes1988]

I know my history and the history of the Church that Christ founded. Do your research before you slander Christ Church! No I have not seen the video, I rarely watch Michael.

[DaithiDublin]

@rcarnes1988 I always wonder at why religious apologists like yourself break the commandment against lying in order to defend your positions. I've just looked at your channel and see that in fact you *did* just watch Michal Voris's video about Galileo. Which explains why your comment is a verbatim copy of his talking point in that video. What you have not done is watch the full CIA video he was referencing. Watch that and get back to me for any clarification you need. And you will need a lot!

[rcarnes1988]

Galileo wouldn't not of had any issues if he havent dabbled in theological matters not his scientific findings! If he would not of got into theological matters there would be no problems!

[DaithiDublin]

@rcarnes1988 Let me guess, you've watched Michael Voris' latest apologetic video and want to try out your new 'knowledge'? OK, I'm game. Now, please tell me what exactly are the theological difficulties that Galileo had with Mother Church? And how were they separated from his astronomical findings?

[62netty]

Who would've expected anything else from pope Benedict aka cardinal Rätzinger, one of the most exreme right members of the curia during the reign of JPII and the guy who personally disposed of the Latin-American liberation theology.

If he gets the chance, he'll turn back all progress that has been made since the second Vatican council under John XXIII. This man gives a higher priority to the glory of the church than to the alleviation of suffering among the masses. A hypocrite pope, that's him.

[PInk77W1]

never once during that video did u mention the church had two distinct govts. in galileo's day. Civil and Canon.

[PInk77W1]

@Foreverguga1 2000yr winning streak baby

[PInk77W1]

@aZeroGodist i am a divorced catholic, i go to mass on sunday and receive Jesus, and it aint a sin. You know not what u r talking about.