Catholic church apologizes for its treatment of Galileo in the 1600's

Galileo's philosophizing on the subjects of tides and orbits prompted the church to censure the book by cosmologist Nicolaus Copernicus that first proposed a heliocentric theory — that the sun was the center of the solar system. As for Galileo, he was called to Rome and told in no uncertain terms that he was not to teach the Copernican system.

Eventually another pope came to power — Urban the 8th, a liberal, known as a patron of the arts and sciences. Galileo was in his 70s then. He asked for permission to write a book about heliocentric theory, using tides as evidence that the Earth moved in space. The pope told him to be careful with what he wrote because God could have made the oceans move for reasons other than as a result of the Earth's movements.

Galileo shocked Italy by writing a brilliant debate presented through three characters, one of whom was named "Simplicio," or simpleton. At the end of the book, when Galileo introduced the subject of tides, he quoted Simplicio saying that God might have other reasons for making the tides move.

The pope promptly ordered Galileo to Rome during the depth of winter and in the midst of the Black Plague. His book was banned, he was compelled to say he did not believe the sun was the center of the solar system, and he was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.

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