You: Of course they did -- once they had sufficient reason to do so. Scientific progress was of great help in this regard.
Huh?! I think I'm not getting something here.
Well to put this mystery into a context: I believe that faith and reason are not at war with each other: They are fundamentally allies in the search for Truth.
Both Judaism and Christianity have always been open to the findings of human intellectual effort, including the scientific. Perhaps there has been a bit of "lag time" involved, as in the case of the Galileo affair. But inevitably, Truth is truth, and the Church is in the Truth business. :^)
There is no one of authority within the Catholic Church that I know of, for instance, that denies the theory of evolution, or relativity theory, or quantum theory. Though the Church may have a quibble or two with the neo-Darwinist "take" on the former by reason of its severe reductionism.
We render unto Caesar's what is Caesar's; and unto God, what is God's. Now Caesar isn't necessarily in the Truth business. Indeed, most of the Caesars that I know of have gladly traded Truth for power.... That is the pressing problem.
I am not fond of politicians or judges as a class -- nor of "interest groups" who seek power (through coercion) rather than the truth of reality. FWIW
once = at one time