Galileo

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Oct 31, 1992
Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary. It was 350 years after Galileo's death before the Pope apologized. They take their time at the Vatican.

Here is the quote from the wiki entry:

On 31 October 1992, Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled, and officially conceded that the Earth was not stationary, as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture. In March 2008 the Vatican proposed to complete its rehabilitation of Galileo by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls. In December of the same year, during events to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's earliest telescopic observations, Pope Benedict XVI praised his contributions to astronomy.

Jan 8, 1642 (Galileo dies)

“I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.”

April 9, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)
Galileo's telescope will be at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia from April 4 to Sept 7, 2009. The United Nations designated 2009 the International Year of Astronomy to honor the 400th anniversary of Galileo's discoveries and Johannes Kepler's publication of Astronomia Nova.

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