Galileo, Church, Science

The popes supported astronomical research. Pope Gregory XIII (r. 1572-1585), who straightened out the calendar, also built the Vatican’s observatory, and Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) himself had Pope Urban VIII as a benefactor, friend, and even poetic champion – at least until the sharp-tongued Galileo made ridicule of the pope part of his elaboration on the Copernican system. There was nothing in Galileo’s science that was at odds with the Church – the issue was his manner, and his manner was an issue because the Church had finally realized that the Reformation would not peter out on its own, but intended to be a full-out assault on the faith.

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As for the Church being opposed to science, it might be worth mentioning that the Jesuits – not to mention the Vatican – still operate their own observatory, and the Catholic Church remains by far the most prominent Christian spokesman regarding the ethical implications of modern science. The Church has also produced a fair number of clerical scientists throughout its modern history, including, perhaps most famously, the monk Gregor Mendel (1822-1894), a botanist, who made a major contribution to the science of genetics. More controversially there is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), Jesuit priest, philosopher, and paleontologist, who did indeed run afoul of the Vatican for his mystical attempt to conflate evolution and Christianity. Among devout laymen one finds such as Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), who is perhaps the most important scientist in the microbiological battle against disease.

- from Triumph: The Power and the Glory of the Catholic Church, by H. W. Crocker III, ch. 17


Also, I might add, Father Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian Catholic priest and astronomer, who first proposed the theory of the Big Bang.