Religion Briefs for Oct. 18

VATICAN CITY -- Rudimentary telescopes, celestial globes and original manuscripts by Galileo are going on view at the Vatican Museums as part of an exhibit marking the 400th anniversary of the astronomer's first celestial observations.

At a briefing to launch the exhibit Tuesday, Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's top culture official, declined to revisit the Catholic Church's 17th-century condemnation of Galileo for his discovery that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed the Earth at the center of the universe.

The church denounced Galileo's theory as dangerous to the faith. Tried as a heretic in 1633 and forced to recant, he was sentenced to life in prison, later changed to house arrest. The ruling helped fuel accusations that the church was hostile to science, a reputation the Vatican has been trying to shed ever since.

In 1992, Pope John Paul II declared the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension." The new exhibit, and other Vatican initiatives to mark the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope and the U.N.-designated International Year of Astronomy, is part of the Vatican's continuing rehabilitation effort.

Vandals hit Mormon meeting sites in Utah

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah -- Vandals threw rocks, with anti-Mormon church messages attached, at the windows of five church meeting houses in the Salt Lake City suburbs.

South Jordan police officer B.J. Smith said typed notes attached to each rock read: "Stop spreading your lies, pagans."

He said last week's vandalism could be investigated as a possible hate crime if the vandals intended to intimidate or terrorize.

Prison returns Torah to Mo. congregation

ST. LOUIS -- A Torah scroll that was donated to a federal prison in Springfield 45 years ago has been returned to its St. Louis-area congregation.

In 1964, Congregation B'nai Amoona lent Judaism's holy object so Jewish prisoners could read from it during Sabbath services.

Officials at the U.S. Medical Center for Federal Prisoners returned the scroll after deciding there weren't enough Jewish prisoners to justify keeping it. A prison chaplain said he wanted to get the scroll back into the hands of people who would use it.