Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called off a visit to Rome's main university in the face of hostility from some of its 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 today during ceremonies marking the start of the academic year at Rome's largest and oldest university, La Sapienza. But the Vatican said last night it had been "considered opportune to postpone" his visit.
The announcement followed a break-in and sit-in at the rector's office on Tuesday 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a furious row over a letter signed by more than 60 of La Sapienza's teachers, asking that the invitation to the Pope be rescinded.
The signatories of the letter said Benedict's presence would be "incongruous." They cited a speech he made at La Sapienza in 1990, while he was still 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."
The letter said: "These words offend and humiliate us."
Among the signatories was the physicist Luciano Maiani, who was recently appointed to head Italy's main scientific research body, the Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche.
Maiani said he later dropped his opposition to the visit after learning that the pope would not be making the keynote address. But the daily La Stampa reported that a number of foreign scientists had since added their names to the initiative.
One student's group declared an "anti-clerical week" to protest at the pope's presence.
Among numerous banners and placards put up around the campus, there was one that read: "Galileo recanted. We shall hold out against the papacy."
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, on that occasion from a medieval Byzantine emperor.
He has since been criticized by Latin Americans for his views on the colonization of their continent and by Protestants for saying their denominations ought not to be considered as churches.
The newspaper Il Giornale, which republished his 1990 speech, said the pope had "expressed a different position" from that of the Austrian scholar Paul Feyerabend, "absolutely not adopting it as his own."
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