The Catholic Church’s impact on western civilization cannot be denied no matter what bitter anti-Catholics have to say about it. And going to the hoary Galileo cliché only makes their remarks more redundant. Dennis Prager once devoted an entire show to it.
For those who live and die by Galileo, here is a good list of Catholic scientists. It does not distinguish between laymen and priests but that’s ok:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Catholic_scientists
Hope the link works; if not, can somebody correct? Thanks.