3 April – “There was an old Bishop of Chichester…”

Today is the Feast of St. Richard of Chichester (+1262), who defended the rights of the Church against the state.

I am reminded of a limerick which my old, late pastor, Msgr. Richard Schuler used to cite:

There was an old Bishop of Chichester,
Who said thrice (the Latin for which is ‘ter’),
“Avaunt and defiance,
Foul spirit called Science,
And quit Mother Church, thou bewitchest her.”

Of course the Church is not anti-science, unless it is HACK-science.  At least in sane times the Church is against HACK-science.  Sane times, mind you.

On this topic of the Church and Science I recommend the book, Galileo in Rome: The Rise and Fall of a Troublesome Genius by William R. Shea and Mariano Artigas and Dava Sobel’s A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos (UK edition HERE).  In addition, there is Heilbron’s The Sun In The Church and Galileo by the same.

BTW… St. Richard called for a Crusade against the Saracens.  Bless him.

Happy feast of St. Richard!