Pope Benedict XV was forced to cancel his visit to La Sapienza, the largest and oldest university in Rome founded in 1303 by the Vatican, to deliver an inauguration speech for the new academic year amidst protests from faculty and students.
67 academics signed a letter protesting the Pope’s visit for his speech in 1990 commenting Galileo’s trial, in which he quoted an Austrian philosopher: “At the time of Galileo, the church remained more loyal to reason than Galileo himself”, and that the verdict against Galileo was “reasonable and just”.
“These words offend and humiliate us,” said the letter.
In a separate initiative, students also organized an “anti-clerical week”. One banner reads: “Knowledge needs neither Fathers nor Priests”, as reported by BBC.
“The controversy was unparalleled in a country where criticism of the Roman Catholic church is normally muted,” wrote The Guardian.
“We have no objections to the pope visiting at any other time when there can be exchanges of opinion, but not at the inauguration,” said Physics professor Andreas Srova and was quoted on CNN. “It was a mistake to ask him to come at this time.”
Methinks it’s a mistake to ask a bigoted, cult leader of an unctuous, scatological corporation that has murdered, tortured and violated millions of lives and continues to scrub history, spread ignorance and spout lies, to come anywhere, anytime.
Hats off to those at La Sapienza who stand up against the tyranny of an evil empire!
