Pope Cancels Speech After Scientists Protest

Reservoir Hill writes "Pope Benedict XVI canceled a speech at Rome's La Sapienza university in the face of protests led by scientists opposed to a high-profile visit to a secular setting by the head of the Catholic Church. Sixty-seven professors and researchers of the university's physics department joined in the call for the pope to stay away protesting the planned visit recalled a 1990 speech in which the pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, seemed to justify the Inquisition's verdict against Galileo in 1633. In the speech, Ratzinger quoted an Austrian philosopher who said the ruling was 'rational and just' and concluded with the remark: 'The faith does not grow from resentment and the rejection of rationality, but from its fundamental affirmation, and from being rooted in a still greater form of reason.' The protest against the visit was spearheaded by physicist Marcello Cini who wrote the rector complaining of an 'incredible violation" of the university's autonomy. Cini said of Benedict's cancellation: 'By canceling, he is playing the victim, which is very intelligent. It will be a pretext for accusing us of refusing dialogue.'"

Comments

Re:The Pope Speaks

[pilgrim23]

Talking to scientists is can be ever so tiring. Some days you are just too pooped to Pope.....

Re:Dialoge?

[MightyMartian]

He's a German theologian.

I think that says it all.

Re:Once again we see

[spun]

That its only Christians and conservatives who are intolerant... Its not like a rational scientist or tolerant liberal would shout down someone they disagree with... /sarc SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!

Re:Dialoge?

[Scrameustache]

Benndict seems to be on a mission from god Does he, now? :)

Re:Once again we see (with improved POT format ;)

[GaryPatterson]

You're right, of course. Protests and letter writing will silence the Pope, who has no other forum for airing his views.

If only there was some place he could speak from, that others could hear. Some sort of... what's the word... pulpit or even a balcony above a crowd.

I guess that'll always be the dream for the Pope though, since we all know he can only speak at universities.

Re:What dialogue?

[phoebusQ]

I'd say you've already shown yourself to be significantly inferior to him, simply by virtue of your attitude.

I don't care what the pope has to say

[luigi6699]

I'm not interested, as long as he still preaches that Jesus B.S. and refuses to accept the plain facts of His Noodly Magnificence's Saucy imprint on all of creation. I'm sure the scientists would have been much more interested in a visit from a representative of the REAL Holy Church, whose beliefs speak to a much "higher" (not to mention tastier) rationality than anything the catholics could propose. RAmen.