Retraction!

Apparently the alleged Galileo- style firing of the Vatican's astronomer for his views on evolution was a badly- researched non story. Anthony Dick has the details.

"This makes for a good story: a classic conflict between science and religion, harkening back to the good old days of Copernicus and Galileo. Unfortunately, it’s pure fiction. I e-mailed Fr. Coyne (which the Daily Mail apparently didn’t bother to do) and asked him about his being “sacked” by the Pope. He responded:

Transitions like this always seem to generate some imaginative journalism. In this case, upon my return from a vacation during which I purposely avoided the news, I hear some media reports that I have been dismissed by the Pope. This is simply not true. The work of the Vatican Observatory under my directorship has been enthusiastically supported by John Paul I, if for ever so short a reign, by John Paul II in many marvelous ways and now by Pope Benedict XVI. Pope Benedict, to my mind, has renewed his enthusiastic support for the Observatory's work…"

As Dick says: "And so another conspiracy theory unravels."

I'll continue to follow the controversy-- it's on our beat.