“Galileo had to suffer a great deal-we cannot conceal the fact-at the hands of men and organisms of the Church” (1)
In November 1979, the word repentance was not stated yet. But, the new Pope spoke in strong words: condemnation of this great scientist was a mistake, and the Church must show trust and even interaction with science! The distant heir to Copernicus and a direct participant of the Second Vatican Council decided to definitively reconcile the Church and science.
“The Church willingly recognizes, moreover, that she has benefited from science. (…) The collaboration between religion and modern science is to the advantage of both, without violation their respective autonomy in any way.” (2)
“The Church, filled with admiration for the genius of the great scientist in whom the imprint of the creative spirit is veiled, (…) however, to the reflection of theologians to discover the harmony existing between scientific truth and revealed truth” (3)
“(…) the future of man and of the world is threatened, radically threatened, in spite of the intentions, certainly noble ones, of men of learning, men of science. It is threatened because the marvelous results of their researches and their discoveries, especially in the field of the sciences of nature, have been and continue to be exploited—to the detriment of the ethical imperative—for purposes that have nothing to do with the requirements of science, and even for purposes of destruction and death, and that to a degree never known hitherto causing really unimaginable damage.” (4)
With the permission of Bernard Lecomte “The world according to John Paul II”, Tallandier Publishing House, Paris 2018
- JPII – speech on occasion of the centenary birth of Albert Einstein, November 10, 1979
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- JPII – speech at UNESCO, June 2, 1980.
