Science and the Popes is a part of the broader subject of science and the Catholic Church. Science and the popes have had a long relationship throughout the history of the Catholic Church. As the church believes the pope is the vicar of Christ, Catholics respect the pope's non-infallible personal opinions on non-theological subjects such as science. While there are ancient patron saints of medical topics, such as Saint Pantaleon, who was invoked during the Black Death, it is not known which pope canonized them.
Middle ages
11th century
Innocent III On 23 April 1198, Innocent III approved of the religious order Order of the Holy Ghost, which took care of sick laypersons. Innocent III also founded Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome.Aleteia: The oldest hospital in Europe was founded by a pope
Renaissance 15th century
Paul IV For being a Protestant, Conrad Gessner's work, Historiae animalium, was put on the Index of Prohibited Books by Pope Paul IV.
Gregory XIII The Gregorian calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582.See Wikisource English translation of the (Latin) 1582 papal bull 'Inter gravissimas' instituting Gregorian calendar reform.
Early modernity
17th century
Paul V Pope Paul V instructed Cardinal Bellarmine to inform Galileo that Copernican heliocentrism could not be taught as fact. He also told Galileo that he was personally safe from persecution so long as he, the Pope, was alive.
Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII had Galileo's book put on the Index of Prohibited Books and had Galileo himself sentenced to lifelong house arrest for heresy for "following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture."From the Inquisition's sentence of June 22, 1633 (de Santillana, 1976, pp.306-10; Finocchiaro 1989, pp. 287-91)
Alexander VII
Pope Alexander VII issued the 1664 papal bull Speculatores Domus Israel, which reaffirmed the Church's prohibition of all works teaching the motion of the Earth.
18th century 19th century Pius IX At the First Vatican Council, convoked by Pope Pius IX, it was declared dogma that God can be known by reason alone and that faith and reason are both from God and cannot contradict each other.Papal Encyclicals: Decrees of Vatican Council I The same holy mother church holds and teaches that God, the source and end of all things, can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things, by the natural power of human reason: ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made...Even though faith is above reason, there can never be any real disagreement between faith and reason, since it is the same God who reveals the mysteries and infuses faith, and who has endowed the human mind with the light of reason.
Leo XIII On 18 November 1893, Pope Leo XIII issued Providentissimus Deus. In it, he said that "no real disagreement can exist between the theologian and the scientist provided each keeps within his own limits. ...If nevertheless there is a disagreement ... it should be remembered that the sacred writers, or more truly ‘the Spirit of God who spoke through them, did not wish to teach men such truths (as the inner structure of visible objects) which do not help anyone to salvation’; and that, for this reason, rather than trying to provide a scientific exposition of nature, they sometimes describe and treat these matters either in a somewhat figurative language or as the common manner of speech those times required, and indeed still requires nowadays in everyday life, even amongst most learned people."(Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus 18)
Modernity
20th century
Pius XI In 1936, Pope Pius XI refounded the Pontifical Academy of Sciences with the goal of making it the Church's "scientific senate". When deciding the academy's composition, he was opposed to any racial or religious discrimination; he appointed over 80 academicians from a variety of backgrounds, countries, and research areas.
Pius XII In 1939, Pope Pius XII described Galileo as being among the "most audacious heroes of research ... not afraid of the stumbling blocks and the risks on the way, nor fearful of the funereal monuments."Discourse of His Holiness Pope Pius XII given on 3 December 1939 at the Solemn Audience granted to the Plenary Session of the Academy, Discourses of the Popes from Pius XI to John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences 1939-1986, Vatican City, p.34
In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pius XII accepted evolution as a possibility and a legitimate field of study to investigate the origins of the human body, while emphasising that "the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God."
John Paul II In Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II said, "faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth – in a word, to know himself – so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves."Fides et Ratio ; Pope John Paul II
In Veritatis splendor, John Paul II, quoting the Second Vatican Council, said that abortion is an "intrinsically evil act."Vatican.Va John Paul II, Veritatis Splendor 80
Benedict XVI On July 25, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI said that the clash between creation and evolution "is an absurdity because on one hand there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and which enriches our understanding of life and being as such."NBC News: Pope: Creation vs. evolution clash an ‘absurdity’
In his spiritual testament, Benedict XVI said:Catholic News Agency: Pope Benedict XVI Spiritual Testament
It often seems that science...are able to offer irrefutable results at odds with the Catholic faith...on the contrary, apparent certainties against the faith have vanished, proving to be not science, but philosophical interpretations only apparently pertaining to science;...with the succession of different generations I have seen theses that seemed unshakable collapse, proving to be mere hypotheses: the liberal generation (Harnack, Jülicher etc.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann etc.), the Marxist generation. I saw and see how out of the tangle of assumptions the reasonableness of faith emerged and emerges again.
Francis The papacy of Pope Francis saw a major focus on climate change. The New York Times stated that "Francis reiterated the established science that burning fossil fuels are warming the planet, said the impact threatened the world's poor, and called for government policies to cut fossil fuel use."
In a July 2, 2021 video message, Francis said that there "cannot and must not be any opposition between faith and science."CNA: Pope Francis: ‘There cannot and must not be any opposition between faith and science’
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