News on Roman Catholicism

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Catholic Church should not fear scientific progress and possibly repeat the mistake it made when it condemned astronomer Galileo in the 17th century, a Vatican official said on Thursday in a rare self-criticism. Galileo, who lived from 1564 to 1642, was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633 for asserting that the earth revolved around the sun. Known as the father of astronomy, he wasn't fully rehabilitated by the Vatican until 1992, nearly 360 years later. At a news conference presenting a new volume of documents ...

Thirty-seven U.S. senators are asking Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet to release a dissident Roman Catholic priest serving prison and house arrest terms totaling 13 years. In a letter sent through the Vietnamese Embassy, the senators said the Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly had no lawyers during his four-hour trial and was silenced repeatedly by a security guard who put his hand over the priest's mouth, then removed him from the courtroom. The letter also requested ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. senators urged Vietnam's president on Wednesday to free a Catholic priest as human rights groups said his imprisonment justified putting Hanoi on a U.S. religious freedom blacklist. Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who had spent 16 years in prison for rights advocacy activities, was jailed for eight years in March 2007 on charges that he spread propaganda against Vietnam's communist government. The group of 37 senators, led by Democrat Barbara Boxer and Republican Sam Brownback, urged President ...