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It's taken me a few days to catch up with the news that the Catholic Church has seen fit to give proper burial to Copernicus. But what the heck, it took the church 500 years to get it right, so what's a few days?
The reset on this, however, is more than a curiosity. Substitute other issues of the day, issues dealing with matters of Christology, ecclesiology or sexuality over which theologians have been silenced, and what happened in the 16th century becomes more understandable. Or maybe the case is that what is happening in the 21st century is sadly (and dangerously) reminiscent of the 16th century.
Whatever the case, who can begrudge a scientist a proper and honorable burial or not be happy that the church is able to acknowledge that it got something wrong -- even if it takes half a millennium.
