| The Vatican's Turn to Recant
Since the 1633 trial of Galileo, church relations with the world of science have often been strained. Galileo was put on trial by papal authorities for publishing a book defending Copernicus's theory that the earth revolves around the sun. Copernicus had died nearly a century before, and his "heliocentric" view of the solar system was already generally accepted by astronomers and even by some theologians. Nevertheless, the Vatican insisted Galileo stop discussing the idea; threatened by the Inquisition with torture, he recanted his views and spent the last nine years of his life under the equivalent of house arrest. The episode became symbolic of many things, all negative -- religious closed-mindedness, intolerance, antiscientific attitudes, etc.
Three and a half centuries later, it was the Vatican's turn to recant.
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