Pope Benedict XVI last night called off a visit to Rome’s main university in the face of hostility from some of its academics and students, who accused him of despising science and defending the Inquisition’s condemnation of Galileo.
The controversy was unparalleled in a country where criticism of the Roman Catholic church is normally muted. The Pope had been due to speak tomorrow during ceremonies marking the start of the academic year at Rome’s largest and oldest university, La Sapienza. But the Vatican said last night it had been “considered opportune to postpone” his visit.
The announcement followed a break-in and sit-in at the rector’s office yesterday by about 50 students and a furious row over a letter signed by more than 60 of La Sapienza’s teachers, asking that the invitation to the Pope be rescinded.
The signatories of the letter said Benedict’s presence would be “incongruous”. They cited a speech he made at La Sapienza in 1990, while he was still a cardinal, in which he quoted the judgment of an Austrian philosopher of science who wrote that the church’s trial of Galileo was “reasonable and fair”.
Let’s make climate a culture war!
If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad? No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal...
