The belief that the Catholic Church persecuted Galileo Galilei for pointing out that the earth goes round the sun was quite wrong, the new secretary of the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation, Archbishop Angelo Amato, has claimed. Citing a letter recently discovered in the Vatican's archive, Archbishop Amato, who heads the body formerly known as the Holy Office or the Inquisition, said it proved that the church had treated him very well. The letter, sent by the Commissioner of the Holy Office to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in 1633, expressed the pope's concern that the trial of the scientist accused of heresy be concluded quickly as his health was poor. Archbishop Amato told the Italian weekly La Famiglia Cristiana that the letter proved that the church's attitude to the great astronomer was benign. The idea, he said, that "Galileo was incarcerated and even tortured so that he would abjure" was no more than a legend, "transmitted by a false iconography", he insisted.In fact, he said, he was accorded every civility while residing at the Inquisition's pleasure: "his room was the apartment of the attorney - one of the highest officials of the Inquisition - where he was assisted by his own servant... During the rest of his stay in Rome he was the guest of the Florentine ambassador at the Villa Medici".
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Considering his, at the time, astonishing discovery, why would he do that without persuasion??