 On 31 October 1992 , Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled , and issued a declaration acknowledging the errors committed by the Catholic Church tribunal that judged the scientific positions of Galileo Galilei , as the result of a study conducted by the Pontifical Council for Culture . In March 2008 the head of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences , Nicola Cabibbo , announced a plan to honour Galileo by erecting a statue of him inside the Vatican walls . In December of the same year , during events to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo 's earliest telescopic observations , Pope Benedict XVI praised his contributions to astronomy . A month later , however , the head of the Pontifical Council for Culture , Gianfranco <unk> , revealed that the plan to erect a statue of Galileo in the grounds of the Vatican had been suspended . 
