How did the Catholic Church react to new ideas in astronomy?

Answer 1

They were actually the theories of Copernicus, Galileo just supported them and tried to make the argument that we should look to science before we look to scripture when trying to solve mysteries in nature. The church reacted by putting him on trial under penalty of death and torture, letting him shoot his mouth off quite a bit more than people got away with back then (since he was a bishop and a personal friend of the pope) and eventually forcing him to recant his "heresy" to avoid being tortured and executed, and banned his writings for 200 years, by which time his findings were readily accepted.

Answer 2

You probably mean "Sun-centered" solar system.

The Roman Catholic Church, very slowly, came to accept the Sun centered system.

Galileo's famous book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" was only finally removed from the Church's banned list around the year 1835.

About 20 years ago, the Church finally stated that Galileo had been wrongly

persecuted for his ideas and that his ideas were correct.

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Catholic AnswerThe Church initially approved of Copernicus's theory (unproven) that the solar system revolved around the sun, although the treatise De revolutionibus was on the list of forbidden books from 1616 until 1757. Galileo took up this theory and, unfortunately, tried to have the Church accept it without trying to harmonize it with Scripture and he was, shall we say, not exactly polite about it. His bull-headed approach and sharp wit earned him many enemies among the Church fathers who had to review his works, and his complete lack of empirical evidence (which was not his fault, science had not yet advanced far enough to prove his theories) earned him his trial and imprisonment, brief though it was. None of the Popes ever ruled in favor of either theory, the Popes, for the most part have always been on the side of science (witness the Pope's endorsement of Copernicus). Galileo may have been improperly treated, but it was all his own fault. It took the Church another 100 years to recognize the merits of his work, when an imprimatur was bestowed on it. Remember that neither Copernicus nor Galileo had the science available to prove their theories. Copernicus was polite about his theory, Galileo was a capital pain.

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerCautiously, as the "new ideas" looked as if they conflicted with Scripture, which the Church believes is infallible.

Answer 4

The Catholic Church initially resisted new ideas in astronomy, such as heliocentrism proposed by Galileo, due to conflicting with biblical interpretation. Galileo was eventually condemned and forced to recant his views under threat of excommunication. However, over time, the Church's stance evolved, and in 1992, Pope John Paul II issued an apology for the way Galileo was treated.