Sapienza University staff & students unite to block Pope - "Galileo again"
international |
crime and justice |
other press 
Tuesday January 15, 2008 12:08
by + "ora pro nobis"
67 members of staff at the university of Sapienza in Rome have joined their student body in rejecting a planned visit by Pope Benedict XVI this Thursday citing his position & opinion on Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) common era, who was placed under house arrest by the Roman Catholic church from 1633 onwards in a process which Joseph Ratzinger described as "reasonable & just" in 1990.
Galileo's inquisitors had maintained the scriptures indicated the Earth was stationary. Under John Paul 2 (the last pope) the RC church conceded the planet wasn't stationary approximately 140 years after they had created the "Specola Astronomica Vaticana or Vatican observatory to look at the universe with a telescope, a scientific instrument for making far away things look really close-up whose invention of course was credited to Galileo Galilei.
This is how JP2 put it on Hallowe'en day 1992 (Hallowe'en day doesn't move & falls on October 31 every year) using the headed note paper from the observatory :- "Thanks to his intuition as a brilliant physicist and by relying on different arguments, Galileo, who practically invented the experimental method, understood why only the sun could function as the centre of the world, as it was then known, that is to say, as a planetary system. The error of the theologians of the time, when they maintained the centrality of the Earth, was to think that our understanding of the physical world's structure was, in some way, imposed by the literal sense of Sacred Scripture...." – Pope John Paul II, L'Osservatore Romano N. 44 (1264) - it took the Vatican 5 days to print up though, which they did for posterity on the 4th November,1992
As I put it quite smugly (to the point of copyrighting it) a few years back -
.:. the cheese doth not move because it is stuck to the toast .:. excerpted from iosaf mac diarmada's hadith, gurglings, ravings & jewels of wisdom.
Here's coverage from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7188860.stm & here are some photos from the Italian commercial press as the student body begin 4 days of anti-popery & anti-religious protesting.
La Repubblica
http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/gallerie/esteri/papa-s....html
Corriere dela Serra
http://www.corriere.it/gallery/Cronache/vuoto.shtml?200...a/1&1
if you're coming at this from the Catholic side you could always learn something which will awe your pals about GeoSattelitePositioning systems from the Catholic encyclopedia entry on Galileo
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06342b.htm
Latest news from Italian media confirms that the students have occupied the director's office in reaction to the Vatican's confirmation that Ratzinger will not bow to censure & call off the visit. http://www.repubblica.it/2007/12/sezioni/esteri/benedet....html
I think this is all great fun. I think I'll get involved..,
