Not known for deep understanding of high technology? The Catholic Church was behind the scientific discovery of The Big Bang through the Catholic priest (and astrophysicist) Lamaître. Mendel, the father of modern genetics, was an Augustinian friar. Steno, a Catholic bishop, formulated the foundational principles of stratigraphy, establishing geology as a formal science. Secchi, a Jesuit priest, was a pioneer in spectroscopy and the first to establish that the Sun is a star, creating the first stellar classification system.
> Secchi, a Jesuit priest, was a pioneer in spectroscopy and the first to establish that the Sun is a star, creating the first stellar classification system.
Amazing. Building on the work of Galileo I see. How was Galileo received by the church yet?
Well, he was an honored guest of the Pope for a while. Then he made fun of his host in a published book while claiming that he had a proof when he just had a theory and was told to please stop claiming that his theory required a change in theological interpretations of the book of Joshua (but he might continue teaching his theory about terrestrial movements without claiming that they were necessarily true).
The problem with Galileo is that he did not yet have good enough evidence to assert what he was asserting (even though what he was asserting turned out to be true).