Giordano Bruno, the Dominican philosopher burned at the stake in Rome for heresy 400 years ago, was being celebrated as a marty

Giordano Bruno, the Dominican philosopher burned at the stake in Rome for heresy 400 years ago, was being celebrated as a martyr of free thought on Web sites, dozens of articles and symposiums in Rome, Naples, and other European cities as the February 17 anniversary of his execution approached. "The use of coercion and violent methods is absolutely incompatible with sincere search for the truth," and the Inquisition’s death sentences were sins "for which the church repents," responded Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture. At the same time, Dominican Father Georges Cottier, theologian to the pope, said that Bruno isn’t going to "be rehabilitated as a Catholic thinker. From the beginning he repudiated ideas like the dogma of the Trinity or the individual human soul."....

....The "atrocious death" of Giordano Bruno in a Rome square is viewed with "profound regret" by the modern church, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, said in a message to an Italian conference. But Sodano said it was not up to modern church leaders to pass judgment on the motives of those who sentenced Bruno for heresy or carried out the execution. "What emerges from history gives us reason to believe that the judges of this philosopher were animated by a desire to serve the truth and promote the common good, while doing whatever possible to save his life," said Sodano.

Czech Catholics were warned by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith not to accept sacraments from an estimated two dozen former underground priests who have not settled doubts about the validity of their communist-era ordinations. A Czech church spokesman, Father Dennis Herman, said that a Vatican official, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of the doctrinal congregation, met 22 priests at the Vatican Embassy in Prague February 14 after repeated requests for an "open dialogue" from Cardinal Miloslav Vik of Prague. Dozens of priests and bishops were ordained without proper authorization or documentation under the 1948-1989 communist rule after Pope Pius XII granted the Czech church "emergency powers" to appoint clergy during persecutions in the 1950s. Although most later came forward for screening under 1992 Vatican guidelines, many were reportedly bitter over the church’s delay in recognizing their ministry. "Secret police archives show that the communists attempted to destroy the church’s canonical order by infiltrating their own agents and creating false priests," Herman said. He added that while the church has no "secret service" for ascertaining exactly how many have refused the Vatican guidelines, the 22 priests at the February 14 embassy meeting were thought to represent "almost all."

Bishop Raymond A. Lucker was one of 34 bishops supporting a campaign initiated by Pax Christi USA calling for reductions in U.S. military spending and for redirecting the funds to healthcare, education, and tax relief for the nation’s poorest citizens. Bread Not Stones: A National Catholic Campaign to Redirect Military Spending was launched with a statement presented at the National Press Club. Already answering that call is a group of national Catholic organizations representing more than 100,000 lay and religious men and women.