Last October I found myself again in the church Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. It is actually a Museum. We had a Mass there but the whole back of the church was darkened and not for viewing of anyone who did not pay the tourist 10 Euro fee to observe the fine architecture, historic statuary and grave sites of famous Italian figures. The State owns the church now- it's that important- or that neglected by the faithful.In this church is the inconspicuous grave tomb stone of Galileo, the medieval astronomer.
The astronomer was tried as a heretic by the Catholic hierarchy in 1633 and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun.
Imagine that- no, I didn't mean it- OK, OK, OK, you win- the earth really is flat. Just kidding.
In 1992, Pope John Paul II said the church's ruling against Galileo was an error.
It took how many centuries to officially unbrand him a heretic?? Galileo. My hero.
Some of us are faster than the red tape.
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