[AntiGuv]

The heliocentric model was also proclaimed incompatible with the Catholic faith, yet the Earth does move, and Catholicism abides.

[Coleus]

The Galileo affair must stand as the most devious distortion of scientific facts ever propagated. The chapter dealing with these events ought to be read by every human being on earth. As an amateur astronomer, I was aware that scientific evidence in Galileo's time compellingly favored Ptolemy's geocentric solar system model (especially regarding accurate prediction of planetary positions-the critical test of celestial mechanics). I did not know how freely Galileo had been allowed to expound the heliocentric theory in Catholic universities before his arrogance brought him to butt heads with the ecclesiastical hierarchy. It was astronomers in Catholic Church observatories (under the leadership of Cassini) who irrefutably validated Kepler's heliocentric model by measuring the positions and apparent diameters of the Sun.

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (Hardcover) by Thomas E. Woods Jr

 

[Sherman Logan]

Oddly enough, the heliocentric system was later proven to be just as inaccurate as the Ptolemaic system. FWIW

[ccmay]

The heliocentric model was also proclaimed incompatible with the Catholic faith, yet the Earth does move, and Catholicism abides.

One of the things that most appeals to me about Catholicism is that they have recognized their previous errors and injustices in the field of scientific inquiry, tried to make amends, and made a sincere effort to reconcile the plain facts of Science with their trust in God. I hope that under Benedict they are not returning to the obscurantist ways of the past. We have enough ignorant young-Earth holy rollers already, many of them here on FR.

-ccm

[A. Pole]

The heliocentric model was also proclaimed incompatible with the Catholic faith, yet the Earth does move, and Catholicism abides.

And the Sun moves too on the orbit despite heliocentric claims.

[CWW]

You are incorrect. The heliocentric model was not rejected. If you actually knew the entire story, you would have learned that the problem was not the model, but rather that Galileo was put out for public consumption before other scientist could test the theory and confirm its accuracy. The Church never condemned it (the Copernican system) at all.

Neither Paul V or Urban VIII ever so committed himself to the doctrine of geocentricism as to impose it upon the Church as an article of faith, and they certinaly never condemned the doctrine ex cathedra.

The intelligent and cultivated minds of Italy, and many of the most eminent of the ecclesiastics among them, have been the foremost in promoting and welcoming the progress of science, and there were found among the Italian ecclesiastics of Galileo's time many of the earliest and most enlightened adherents of the Copernican system.