Archbishop de Castello: A Foreigner Who Visited the Juku

2022/07/21

On October 31, 2009, a lecture titled "The Galileo Trial: Its History and Significance" was held at the Hiyoshi Campus by Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, the Apostolic Nuncio to Japan.

The issues surrounding science and religion are both old and new. The religious trial conducted by the Roman Inquisition (Holy Office) of the Holy See, known as the "Galileo Trial," was a case where the Church adjudicated a conflict between religion and science regarding the debate over whether heliocentrism or geocentrism was correct. The general view is that Galileo was a heroic scientist who fought bravely against oppression from the Church. The anecdote that Galileo whispered "And yet it moves" when he was convicted at the trial is extremely famous as a phrase representing his bravery.

On the other hand, as seen in a letter Galileo sent to Father Castelli, he stated, "The Holy Scripture and Nature both proceed from the divine Word; the former as the dictation of the Holy Spirit, and the latter as the observant executrix of God's commands." This suggests that he did not disregard the Bible, and it may be said that this is the true image of Galileo, who is often seen as having focused his energy on opposing the Church (it is now considered that "And yet it moves..." was not actually whispered by Galileo but was created by others in later generations).

With the final statement issued by Pope John Paul II on October 31, 1992—360 years after the Galileo Trial—which "recognized the errors of the Galileo Trial," not only was an end put to the controversy surrounding science and religion, but the question of "whether Galileo was a heroic scientist or a heretic who challenged the Bible" was also settled.

Since 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy, the lecture on the Galileo Trial held that year was a good opportunity to explore the "truth of the Galileo Trial." When we requested Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, the Apostolic Nuncio to Japan, who seemed most suitable to speak on this issue, to be the lecturer through the Italian Embassy, he readily agreed, and the Ambassador's visit to Keio University was realized.

The Ambassador was born in 1942 in Montebelluna (Province of Treviso), Italy. He was ordained a priest in 1966, and subsequently studied Canon Law at the Gregorian University and foreign policy at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy. After serving in various parts of the world, he was appointed Archbishop of St. Peter's Basilica by Pope John Paul II in 2000. He served as the Apostolic Nuncio to Japan from 2005 to 2011.

The commonly discussed Galileo Trial consists of the first trial in 1616 and the second trial in 1633. In the first trial, Galileo was cautioned for his heretical behavior in opposing the teachings of the Bible by supporting heliocentrism based on celestial observations made with a telescope he built himself, and asserting that geocentrism based on biblical descriptions was incorrect. Following the results of this trial, Galileo refrained for a while from asserting heliocentrism or writing about the theory in books, but in 1632, he published the book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems."

This book was written in the form of a dialogue between three people—one who supports heliocentrism, one who supports geocentrism, and a mediator between the two—in consideration of the Church's intentions shown in the first trial, so as not to appear to openly support heliocentrism. This consideration was successful, and the "Dialogue" was initially permitted for publication. However, because it was written in everyday Italian rather than Latin and was easy to read, it was read by many people. Fearing that the number of people supporting heliocentrism would increase, the Church summoned Galileo to the Inquisition again.

This was the second trial. This trial was not just a scientific debate over "whether heliocentrism or geocentrism is correct," but primarily questioned whether or not he had acted in respect of the verdict of the first trial. Galileo argued back by submitting a brief stating that the verdict of the first trial did not prohibit the publication of books supporting heliocentrism, but Galileo's argument was not accepted, and he was declared guilty.

Galileo accepted the verdict of the second trial, signed the document of abjuration prepared by the Church, and his guilt was finalized. After staying in Siena for a while, he lived under house arrest at his villa on the outskirts of Florence, cared for by his daughter Maria Celeste, and continued his scientific research until he died in 1642 at the age of 78. During this time, he wrote his representative work, "Two New Sciences."

Subsequently, in the field of science, the annual aberration of starlight (1727) and annual parallax (1838), which serve as observational evidence that the Earth is moving, were observed. Furthermore, with the establishment of Newtonian mechanics on the theoretical side, the validity of heliocentrism (that the Earth is moving) was confirmed from both observational and theoretical perspectives.

Meanwhile, from a religious perspective, Galileo's rehabilitation took place gradually, such as the permission to erect a tomb for Galileo (1741) and the lifting of the ban on the publication of the "Dialogue" (1757). However, Galileo's full rehabilitation had to wait until the final statement by Pope John Paul II on October 31, 1992, 360 years after the trial.

On November 10, 1979, more than 300 years after the second Galileo Trial, Pope John Paul II announced the establishment of a commission to study the controversy between Ptolemaists (geocentrism) and Copernicans (heliocentrism) in the 16th and 17th centuries during his lecture "The Greatness of Galileo is Known to All" at the centenary celebration of Einstein's birth. In this lecture, the Pope stated, "Scientific truth and faith must not be in conflict, and the Church should not interfere with scientific theories; theologians should aim for harmony between scientific truths derived from theories and the truths of faith" ("The Galileo Trial: The Truth After 400 Years," Ichiro Tanaka, Iwanami Shinsho).

The investigation committee spent over a decade examining the trial records and historical facts of the time, and presented its report on October 31, 1992, at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in the Vatican Palace. Following this report, on the same day, Pope John Paul II's lecture "The Harmony of Faith and Reason" was held at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, where the Pope apologized for the Church's judgment regarding the Galileo Trial being erroneous.

The Ambassador's remarks at the lecture held at the Hiyoshi Campus were to the same effect. While the Pope's final statement put an end to the long-standing controversy between science and religion, nearly 360 years had passed before the error of the Galileo Trial was acknowledged. Now that the correctness of heliocentrism has been verified by several observational facts, one cannot help but feel that this evaluation by the Catholic Church is "too little, too late." That aside, the Pope's lecture on how to receive the results of science provides extremely important and profound suggestions regarding the way scientific results are accepted, even apart from the issue of science and religion.

In the latter half of the 19th century, experimental results that could not be understood by the then-established Newtonian mechanics or Maxwell's electromagnetism were discovered one after another. This indicated that the physics established up to that point (referred to as classical physics) had limits to its applicability. The discovery that established theoretical systems of physics have limits of applicability was a revolutionary discovery that forced a major transformation in humanity's perception of nature. As specific examples, it became clear that Newtonian mechanics is not effective for motion at speeds close to the speed of light, and that neither Newtonian mechanics nor Maxwell's electromagnetism can be applied in the microscopic world. As alternative theoretical systems, special relativity and quantum mechanics were constructed. Special relativity and quantum mechanics are called modern physics to distinguish them from classical physics. The birth of modern physics suggests that there are several layers in the natural world, and that in the natural world shown by new layers, one may encounter phenomena that cannot be understood by conventional common sense.

The "EPR Paradox" (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen: Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete? Phys. Rev. 47 (1935) 777), pointed out by Einstein and others as an incompleteness of quantum theory, highlighted the incompleteness of quantum mechanics when viewed from the common sense of the natural world at that time. Special relativity fundamentally transformed the perception of time and space that formed the basic philosophy of nature in Newtonian mechanics. Furthermore, what the EPR Paradox pointed out in quantum mechanics shows cases where one is forced to accept the reality of an "entangled state," which was completely unacceptable by previous common sense. Recognizing the existence of entangled states was a fundamental transformation of previous common sense regarding the way matter exists.

In Galileo's time, heliocentrism involved accepting the fact that "the Earth moves," which could not be imagined from daily experience. Similarly, accepting the reality of the entangled state in quantum mechanics in the 20th century was something impossible according to previous common sense. It can be seen that the debate over the existence of entangled states is similar to the controversy of the Galileo Trial.

The development of science is the work of turning a new page in the natural world. If we think of it that way, the Galileo Trial can be considered the prologue to that history. One can also understand the "depth" of Pope John Paul II's lecture. The fact that the background of the Pope's final statement was clarified in the Ambassador's lecture at the Hiyoshi Campus, touching upon the new significance of the Galileo Trial and the contemporary significance of Pope John Paul II's lecture, was of great significance for those living in an era of continuing scientific development in considering how to receive those discoveries.

Finally, I will briefly introduce the Ambassador's recent activities. After serving as the Apostolic Nuncio to Japan from 2005 to 2011, he served as the Apostolic Nuncio in Budapest, Hungary, from 2011 to 2018. He is currently retired and resides in his hometown of Montebelluna in Northern Italy.