http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0801299.htm
Jesuit Father Sabino Maffeo, the Vatican Observatory's vice director
for administration, told CNS that Galileo ran into trouble with the
Holy Office because he did not have proof for his claims.
"Not having proof ... (the Holy Office) was forced to hold on to the
centuries-old concept" that saw Earth as the center of the cosmos, he
said.
If he had had proof, which did not come for another 100 years with
discoveries made by Isaac Newton, Galileo's fate could have been much
different, Father Maffeo said. He added that Italian Cardinal Robert
Bellarmine, who was part of the 17th-century Vatican commission that
admonished Galileo not to hold or defend the Copernican theory, had
told Galileo "the day in which you bring a demonstration then we will
have to look at how sacred Scripture gets interpreted differently, but
as long as there is no proof, we will continue to interpret
(Scripture) literally as we have all along."
