Statement of the Holy Office on Signor Galilei’s Release of the Dialogo, Anno Domini 1632 Recently, in the city of Florence, Signor Galileo Galilei released a volume purporting to settle the most exalted questions concerning the arrangement of the heavens. He has previously been accused of passing off the Dutch spyglass as his own invention, and of disputing priority over the sunspots with the learned Father Scheiner. The faithful did not ask for this work to be done. In 1616 the Sacred Congregation, from whose wisdom Signor Galilei has claimed to derive his standing, warned through His Eminence Cardinal Bellarmine that the motion of the Earth should be neither held nor defended. By ignoring this central premise, Signor Galilei has shown total disregard for the norms of natural philosophy, norms that ensure knowledge of Creation remains trustworthy, piously pursued, and in service of the souls of men. The Church holds a particular vision of truth, informed by Scripture, by the Fathers, and by the long consensus of the learned since Aristotle and Ptolemy. We reject Signor Galilei’s assertion that his tube of glass advances our understanding, and we urge the faithful and the learned to regard his methods of publication with due suspicion. Printing a thousand copies at once, in the vulgar tongue rather than in Latin, so that any merchant or tradesman may read them, is not a demonstration of scholarship but a demonstration of power. We urge philosophers to cease their correspondence with Signor Galilei and to return to a vision of the cosmos that places Man, beloved of God and the summit of His Creation, at its center, where the Almighty in His wisdom set him. (This is parody of a statement released earlier this week, of course, just in case you didn’t catch it)