Abstract
Groups of faculty and students at the Roman university, La Sapienza, protested in January 2008 against the Pope's delivering an address to mark the opening of the school year, leading to the cancellation of the visit. The cause alleged was that, in an address given in 1990, the Pope (then Cardinal Ratzinger) had demonstrated `hostility' to science, in particular by quoting a claim that the Church's verdict on Galileo had been `rational and just.' Just what did the Cardinal say and why did he say it? In order to make a point about a change in the unquestioning way in which science has until recently been viewed, he quoted two well-known figures, Ernst Bloch and Paul Feyerabend, who argued that Galileo was not the wronged person that he has been made out to be. What historical weight did these views actually have and what role did they play in the Cardinal's overall argument?
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