Posted on 05/22/2010 5:52:31 PM PDT by DogByte6RER
FROMBORK, Poland Nicolaus Copernicus, the 16th-century astronomer whose findings were condemned by the Roman Catholic Church as heretical, was reburied by Polish priests as a hero on Saturday, nearly 500 years after he was laid to rest in an unmarked grave.
His burial in a tomb in the cathedral where he once served as a church canon and doctor indicates how far the church has come in making peace with the scientist whose revolutionary theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun helped usher in the modern scientific age.
Copernicus, who lived from 1473 to 1543, died as a little-known astronomer working in a remote part of northern Poland, far from Europe's centers of learning. He had spent years laboring in his free time developing his theory, which was later condemned as heretical by the church because it removed Earth and humanity from their central position in the universe.
His revolutionary model was based on complex mathematical calculations and his naked-eye observations of the heavens because the telescope had not yet been invented.
After his death, his remains rested in an unmarked grave beneath the floor of the cathedral in Frombork, on Poland's Baltic coast, the exact location unknown.
On Saturday, his remains were blessed with holy water by some of Poland's highest-ranking clerics before an honor guard ceremoniously carried his coffin through the imposing red brick cathedral and lowered it back into the same spot where part of his skull and other bones were found in 2005.
A black granite tombstone now identifies him as the founder of the heliocentric theory, but also a church canon, a cleric ranking below a priest. The tombstone is decorated with a model of the solar system, a golden sun encircled by six of the planets.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
It fits into what I intended to say as my conclusion: that I see "The Galileo Affair" much as Koestler and Huxley do, as a drama in which pride and miscomprehension played a major part on both sides (the fallible Pope Urban and the fallible Galileo), and which was later rather cartoonishly exploited as an exhibit in the Punch & Judy Museum of Intellectual History.
A couple of sources (off the tips of my fallible fingers):
http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2009/08/was-galileo-guilty-contribution.html
http://www.contra-mundum.org/schirrmacher/galileo.pdf
http://tinyurl.com/bellarmine-hypothesis
Johnston, George Sim. The Galileo Affair. (Princeton, NJ: Scepter Press)
In goodwill, and hoping always for a fruitful reading of history....
Frombork seems a nice little town. Guess there's nothing much to do there, though, other than unlock the secrets of the Solar System.
thanks for the clarification on Galileo
That is the CC specialty and it would not exist without it.
What next? Pope Alessandro VI was a peaceful pope and his son Borgia was a misunderstood baker.
And in a 100 years, CC followers will be all denying that there was ever pedophile priests.
Let he is without sin cast the first stone.
I just did.
From your profile:
"My argument with the Catholic Church (CC) vis-à-vis its direct and indirect support of a perpetual expanding government, which in turn has a direct and indirect effect on birth rates (clashing with its admirable stance on abortion), should not be construed (as some on FR may infer) that I somehow disregard all and anything good and positive the CC does for ordinary people living their ordinary lives."
It looks like your argument with the Catholic Church goes beyond the above. It's time to be a bit more honest.
So you’re without sin? LOL
And your not? Then stop casting stones.
-Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Diuturnum, 29 June 1881
I’m only replying to your posts.
Mork was also Frombork.
thanks!
Astronomy ping!
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