The Burden of Discernment (opens in new tab)

In 1633, the year after Galileo Galilei published his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, a book that made a comparative argument strongly favoring heliocentrism, his work was banned by the Roman Catholic Church, and he was sentenced to lifelong house arrest. On October 31, 1992, after a 13-year investigation into the condemnation of the Italian astronomer, Pope John Paul II officially closed the inquiry and formally acknowledged the Church’s error in the affair. The Supreme Pont...