Vatican Mystery As Pope’s Astronomer Steps Down

[The Sushi Bandit]

http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2006/08_Agosto/25/vati.shtml

“Too evolutionist”. “No, health problems”. British paper makes allegation. “Coyne had been asking to leave for years”.
ROME – Is it a routine handover or a dismissal on theological grounds? The replacement of Jesuit George Coyne by 43-year-old Argentinian Jesuit José Gabriel Funes at the helm of the Specola Vaticana, the Holy See’s observatory, has stirred up controversy.The headline of the UK-based Daily Mail is categorical:“Pope sacks astronomer over evolution debate”. Vatican sources deny that it is a “sacking”, attributing the handover to Fr Coyne’s age and poor health – he recently underwent an operation for a tumour of the colon – and saying that he had himself nominated his successor. The same sources do not, however, deny that the arrival of the new director means that controversial statements on the theory of evolution “will probably cease”.

What does the Daily Mail claim is Fr Coyne’s offence? The 73-year-old, who has been in charge of the Specola for twenty-eight years, was a leading figure in the study of Galileo promoted by John Paul II, which led to the Vatican’s acknowledgement of faults in 1992. The newspaper claims that Benedict XVI was “unhappy” at Fr Coyne’s outspoken pro-Darwin statements, which could be interpreted as contradicting the divine design theory of human evolution.In particular, Fr Coyne had clashed publicly with Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, a friend of Benedict XVI, after the cardinal maintained just over a year ago at a conference in America that Darwinism was incompatible “with the Catholic belief that there is a divine purpose and design to nature”. Fr Coyne intervened in the debate claiming that the cardinal “doesn’t have the slightest idea” of the American context in which the debate was taking place, and that his stance made him an ally of “creationism”, which Fr Coyne called “a ‘religious movement’ lacking any scientific merit”.

There were echoes of that debate, during which reciprocal accusations of unilateral radicalism were hurled back and forth, at the Meeting in Rimini, when Cardinal Schönborn, without naming Fr Coyne, questioned whether “a scientist who is also a theologian” can adopt a stance “favourable” to Darwinism.Informed Vatican sources maintain that both Fr Coyne and Fr Funes belong to the same liberal, or open-minded, group with regard to a positive evaluation of the theory of evolution, which John Paul II had already called "more than a hypothesis”.But they also note that Fr Funes habitually adopts “greater scientific rigour” in his public statements, believing that the evolution issue enters only partially within the Specola’s competence,and that it concerns the evolution of the universe, not that of living beings.

[Double T]

1. Scientific proof and fact is being sold out for religious fanaticism

It is pathetic......

[Peace Patriot]

2. Arguing about how many angels fit on the head of a pin--as far as I'm

concerned--or about whether or not women have souls. Priests! Rip off their robes and they are just powermongering pricks, like all the rest--like the fascists and warmongers who have seized power illegitimately here in the U.S. Who cares what they think of evolution or of the universe or of humanity? They stopped being Christians--and started being killers of the human spirit--about 15 centuries ago. They purpose now is solely to maintain their power to dictate what some people think. They have no legitimacy in doing so. They exclude half the human race from all power over policy and all positions of leadership. And whether they support evolutionary theory or not, they are prime examples of devolution: stupid, backwards, egotistical men--men who think they have all the answers--leading us straight to our own self-created Armageddon, in the name of our own self-created Gods.

[silverweb]

3. Okay.

So when's Benny appointing the new High Inquisitioner?

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Birds of a feather? Not quite.

It's all just palace intrigue. The scientist-theologian in question, Fr. George Coyne, crossed beaks with a friend of Joey Rats', Christoph Cardinal Schönborn.

I would be quite surprised if the Vatican were to so suddenly align itself with a bunch of American Protestant mountebanks. I may not agree much with the Pope's Cardinals, but they're not at all like the standard-issue American Red-Ass Pulpit Jumper, a common (some would say vulgar) bird with a loud, annoying song, promiscuous nesting habits (though the male of species typically mates with fewer than 50 females for life), and a propensity to foul all visited sites due to the copious quantity of fecal material that must be expelled to permit flight. They're also known to peck at Cardinals (and lesser birds), sometimes viciously.

An' if'n *I* wuz The Pope, I'd try to find some way to own/frame the Intelligent Design debate that would resolve or at least avoid the "God vs. Science" bullshit the American/Fundy theocrats revel in. To be seen as the force that "reconciled" the two would be a mighty Bald Eagle's feather in the Vatican cap, and give them a wing up to reverse the trend of Fundies recruiting among Roman Catholics.

Granted, they're probably not going to appoint Richard Dawkins to the Specola, but the article doesn't give us half enough information to say anything now except "the Vatican is a mighty political place" -- which is plenty!

Sometimes I shudder to think what "religious authorities" might think up for us ("who you callin' us, white man?") to believe in order to achieve salvation, but this sounds more like a bunch of bishops and cardinals jockeying for position than the dread hand of Palpatine Benny commencing to Lowre the Boome.

And, after all, they're not talking about sex, so how much trouble could they be getting into?

:evilgrin:

--p!
Chicken Little was ... a godless left-winger.

[The Sushi Bandit]

5. Labor day Kick