Chutzpah

Via PZ Myers at Pharyngula and others.

Four hundred years after it put Galileo on trial for heresy the Vatican is to complete its rehabilitation of the great scientist by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls.
- The London Times

And they plan to put it near the rooms where Galileo was imprisoned while he awaited his heresey trial for claiming that earth recolves around the sun. The vatican is apparently commemorating the scientist's trial where he was forced to recant, when as legend has it, he muttered under his breath "E pur si muove!" (And yet it does move!).

The Church wants to close the Galileo affair and reach a definitive understanding not only of his great legacy but also of the relationship between science and faith.
- Pontifical Academy of Sciences president Nicola Cabibbo.

Yeah, the Galileo story helps understand the relationship between science and faith, all right.


More about Galileo at Dirty John Bonny.