As Spike Milligan once said ' There are two things i can't stand intolerance and Catholics'

Iain Rae, Tunbridge Wells, U.K.

John K, Redmond was puzzled by Galieo "not having been tortured, but forced to recant by Inquisition". John, i think in some cases the accused was merely "shown the instruments", which could suffice to bring about recanting. peter

Peter Burton, London,

A little late, what? What's the point...to make the Vatican feel good?

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

While this is one of the better known cases of organized religion being completely backward in the face of scientific reality, it's by far not the only case and sadly, it's still going on today.

I particularly like how they refer to him not havening been tortured, but that he was forced to recant by Inquisition.

Umm... the Inquisition was, by nature, torture. They didn't just ground Galileo from his books until he recanted.

John K, Redmond, WA

Relationship between science and faith:
Faith bans science's books and puts science under house arrest. 375 years later, science is widely respected and faith attempts to say sorry. Science tells faith where to stick it.

_Felix, Nottingham,

Anglicans are among the many today who laud Tyndale as the "father of the English Bible." But it was their own founder, King Henry VIII, who in 1531 declared that "the translation of the Scripture corrupted by William Tyndale should be utterly expelled, rejected, and put away out of the hands of the people." So troublesome did Tyndale’s Bible prove to be that in 1543—after his break with Rome—Henry again decreed that "all manner of books of the Old and New Testament in English, being of the crafty, false, and untrue translation of Tyndale . . . shall be clearly and utterly abolished, extinguished, and forbidden to be kept or used in this realm." Those aren't the words of a Catholic, but the founder of the Anglican Church.

And this says nothing about papal infallibility which is defined only in the areas of faith and morals, nothing about helicentricity. Know what the church teaches, not what you want the church to teach.

Nathan, Bismarck,

Just shows, along with other things, how fallible Popes are

margie, victoria, australia

If only they had burnt him at the stake - then they could cannonise him as a matyr

pheelion, Brisbane, Australia

Finally, a statue of Galileo to be erected in the Vatican.
AND ABOUT TIME , TOO !
As a frequent visitor to Florence I shall, once again, in April, be paying homage to fearless Galileo at his tomb in the Santa Croce Church - Galileo's tomb is on the opposite wall of the church to that of the tomb of the equally strong minded 'revolutionary ' Michelangelo.
I am one of those damned Calvinists who praise Galileo for being one of the greatest thinkers in the history of this sorry planet. What a scientist. What a guy !
And, what of Florence's stern and notorious priest Savonarola ? Is he to get some sort of Vatican apology in spite of his sponsoring those naughty Bonfire of Vanities ? Ironic that he should have been burned at the stake in Florence on the same site as his own bonfires.

Dr. Jimmy, Nottingham, England

Andrew, you must have some seriously impressive inside knowledge about the historicity of the Gospels and the writings of Paul, Peter, Titus, Jude, John, James, Timothy and Luke that no other serious New Testament critic has.

In fact the NT is one of the best corroborated ancient texts available with support for it from Jewish and secular sources as well as a growing source of archaeology. The crucifixion and resurrection are particularly well attested as D. H. van Daalen has pointed out, "It is extremely difficult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions."

As Andrew demonstrates, someone with a particular perspective, even if wrong, can cause a lot of confusion through poor scholarship, which the Catholic Church wanted to prevent.

Sadly though they also closed their minds to GOOD scholarship and reasonable faith thus turning protection into persecution.

Nathan, Inverness, UK

"The Catholic church was the architect of the dark ages and did everything in its power to resist renaissance."???
Please, Revilo, read the historical documents in full and try to think what the middle age would have been without the Church. Abbeys and monasteries consented to transmit culture to the future generations saving Greek and Latin documents from barbarian destructions!

olga, london,

You never know, the American Taliban and the other 'Creationists' may well be apologising for its treatment of the Rev. Charles Darwin and Evolution. But not for a further 400 years.

BP Vallance, LEFKIMMI, Greece

How about apologizing for the biggest deception in the history of history itself? Because that's essentially what Christianity is; a personality cult taken over by a serial fantasist. Think Elvis: The star, the manager and the fan club and you'll see how easy it was. This is one area where the Muslims have it right. St. Paul was an evil, pernicious influence that hijacked the early Christian church and was done to death for his trouble. In fact, all of Christianity has a nasty sadomasochistic streak. John the Baptist, Jesus, his brother James who took over the movement, St. Paul… all done to death. And forget Jesus rising from the dead after being executed by the Romans and an ascension into heaven. The bones of JC became part of the planet like everyone else. “This convenient myth has served us well.” You can say that again.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Revilo, your anti-Catholicism is woefully ignorant.
I think you will find that the barbarian invasions of the 5th century were collectively the architect of the dark ages - not the Catholic church!
Tyndale fled to Europe to escape Henry VIII, and was murdered with his connivance. Had he not opposed Henry's divorce, he just might have survived.
Before you attack the Catholic Church again, can I respectfully suggest you read Pope Benedict XVI's recent lecture on Galileo? You might be surprised!

Andrew, Norfolk,

The Catholic church apologizes for its persecution of Galileo. Good start. How about apologizing for torturing and murdering Tyndall. Tyndall had the audacity of publishing the Bible in English so that people had direct access to knowledge without the controlling interpretation of the Roman Catholic church.
It was not just scientific knowledge that the Pope suppressed - it activity sought to be the arbiter of all knowledge and suppressed any independent access to light and truth in any form.

The Catholic church was the architect of the dark ages and did everything in its power to resist renaissance. It burned Tyndall at the stake for translating the Bible into English and murdered untold scores of people for merely having copies of Tyndall's translation.

Yes, apologizing to Galileo is little more than a poor start to the Church's requisite repentance.

Revilo, Waynesvile, OH