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Pope cancels varsity visit after protests

Rome: Pope Benedict XVI has called off a visit to Rome’s main university in the face of hostility from some academics and students, who accused him of despising science and defending the Inquisition’s condemnation of Galileo.

The controversy was unparalleled in a country where criticism of the Roman Catholic church is normally muted. The Pope had been due to speak during ceremonies marking the start of the academic year at Rome’s largest and oldest university, La Sapienza.

But the Vatican said it had been “considered opportune to postpone” his visit.

The announcement followed a break-in and sit-in at the rector’s office by about 50 students and a furious row over a letter signed by more than 60 of La Sapienza’s teachers, asking that the invitation to the Pope be rescinded. They cited a speech he made at La Sapienza in 1990, while he was a cardinal, in which he quoted the judgment of an Austrian philosopher of science who wrote that the church’s trial of Galileo was “reasonable and fair.” One student’s group declared an “anti-clerical week” to protest at the Pope’s presence.

The Pope is known for his deeply conservative outlook and the controversy is the latest in a string of rows since his election three years ago. He upset Muslims with another quotation in an academic lecture.

He has since been criticised by Latin Americans for his views on the colonisation of their continent and by Protestants for saying their denominations ought not to be considered as churches. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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