A Case in Point - The infallibility of the Pope and his Church

Born in 1564, Galileo was raised Roman Catholic. At 10 years old, he began his formal education in a monastery with monks in charge. Thereafter, all through life, Galileo accepted the Church's teaching about supernatural entities and events, all of which defied human observation and verification.

For physical and natural realities, however, the scientist relied upon his mind. With his homemade telescopes, Galileo observed celestial phenomena that conflicted with Ptolemy's ancient theory that the sun rotates around a stationary earth. Galileo promoted the contrary theory of the Polish astronomer Copernicus (d. 1543) who believed that the earth circles around the sun.

After consulting with the Pope's theologians, the Inquisition, under the Pope's direct control, declared Galileo's theory heretical because the Bible clearly states that "the sun rises and the sun goes down." The Pope's court silenced Galileo and put him under house arrest for life.

Before his death, Galileo boldly broke his enforced silence and wrote a book entitled "The Dialogue" expressing his unshaken belief that the earth circles around the sun. He was right, of course, and the Pope was wrong.

After Galileo's death in 1642, not one of the 29 successive popes during 350 years ever admitted any wrongdoing against Galileo.

In 1992, however, Pope John Paul II formally acknowledged that the Church had made a mistake in condemning Galileo.

Eight years later, on March 12, 2000, the Pope offered a public apology for the abuses of power of the Church. Between 1000-1750, myriads of Jews and Christians died at the hands of Catholic inquisitors and crusaders. The Pope acknowledged that the Church had made mistakes, terrible mistakes, sins of devastating consequences.