Dogma of Catholic Church

[Waynec]

BEFORE Galileo’s time, many people believed that the sun, the planets, and the stars all revolved around the earth. That belief was part of the official dogma of the Catholic Church.

The above was written in the Awake Magazine of the Watchtower for June 2015.

Can some one help me refute this? I don’t think that this is a Catholic Dogma. I beleive that it was declared a heresy by the Inquisition.

Thanks in advance.

 

[1ke]

That belief was part of the official dogma of the Catholic Church.

No. It was not.

Can some one help me refute this?

It’s up to them to prove it. Which they cannot.

I don’t think that this is a Catholic Dogma.

You are quite correct. Because scientific facts are not part of the deposit of faith.

I beleive that it was declared a heresy by the Inquisition.

This is not correct.

 

[DavidFilmer]

Can some one help me refute this?

It’s impossible to prove a negative (ie, that something did not happen).

But the burden of proof in such a situation is on the person making the claim, not on the person hearing it. It’s easy to prove that the Church DID teach such-and-such, especially in today’s Internet world. It’s even easy to translate older documents from Latin (often official translations are not available for older documents (which may pre-date the English language), but Google translate does an adequate job).

If Pope Leroy the Great wrote Orbitae Planetarum, it would be a simple matter to cite it. But there was no such Pope, and no such encyclical.

 

[Waynec]

Hi 1ke

The following is from a print out of the Britannica Academic Galileo (Italian, philosopher, astronomer and Mathematician)

“… Inquisition consultants examined the question and pronounced the Copernican theory heretical…”

When I first read the article in the Awake Magazine I wrote the Watchtower for their references and they sent me several copied pages from the Britannica.

I wanted to send them an intelligent letter explaining why they are wrong as usual when they attack Catholics. At least I feel they attack us.

Thank you for your response.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

I wanted to send them an intelligent letter explaining why they are wrong as usual when they attack Catholics. At least I feel they attack us.

Here you go:

The Galileo Controversy

What was condemned was his attempt to use his geocentric model to attack the Church, not the model itself.

 

[DavidFilmer]

… Inquisition consultants examined the question and pronounced the Copernican theory heretical…

The problem with the Inquisition is that it is not part of the Magesterium, and therefore has no teaching authority. Its decisions are merely the opinions of the judges (which might not even include a single Bishop).

An inquisition is a judicial trial. The Church does not teach by inquisition (either then or now). No findings of an inquisition constitute Catholic doctrine, much less dogma. Nothing prevents an inquisition from finding falsely, or even hereticaly.

I don’t know whether or not their statement is accurate, but it would not matter if it was.

I wanted to send them an intelligent letter explaining why they are wrong

You’re wasting your time.

 

[MarcoPolo]

Hi 1ke

The following is from a print out of the Britannica Academic Galileo (Italian, philosopher, astronomer and Mathematician)

“… Inquisition consultants examined the question and pronounced the Copernican theory heretical…”

When I first read the article in the Awake Magazine I wrote the Watchtower for their references and they sent me several copied pages from the Britannica.

I wanted to send them an intelligent letter explaining why they are wrong as usual when they attack Catholics. At least I feel they attack us.

Thank you for your response.

The Britannica article apparently does not cite which Church document declared the Copernican theory heresy. You need source material. Unless your colleagues are able to do that, you can tell them their assertion is based on nothing.

Meanwhile, you can find evidence that the Church was open to this being a matter of science even in the 17th century during the Galileo affair. We can see that from a letter of Cardinal Bellarmine on the matter: In Cardinal Bellarmine’s 1615 letter, he qualifies his comment about geocentrism with: “I say that, if there were a real proof that the Sun is in the centre of the universe, that the Earth is in the third sphere, and that the Sun does not go round the Earth but the Earth round the Sun, then we should have to proceed with great circumspection in explaining passages of Scripture which appear to teach the contrary, and we should rather have to say that we did not understand them than declare an opinion to be false which is proved to be true,” which shows the matter is within the purview of science.

 

[pianistclare]

If Pope Leroy the Great wrote Orbitae Planetarum, it would be a simple matter to cite it. But there was no such Pope, and no such encyclical.

 

[Waynec]

Here you go:

The Galileo Controversy

What was condemned was his attempt to use his geocentric model to attack the Church, not the model itself.

Thanks for the link.

 

[Waynec]

Oh I know I am wasting my time but I hope one person might read the letter and start to think for themselves. It also gives me a little sense of satisfaction. I didn’t let the get away with their lies about the Church .

 

[Waynec]

Thank you all for the responses.