In 1992 the Catholic church admitted that Galileo Galilei may have been right about the heliocentric solar system and overturned his heresy conviction. The church has refused to overturn Bruno's conviction, because Bruno wrote about many other matters besides the solar system, and his writings are not compatable with Christian teachings. The church did, however, express regret that they dealt with him violently. There was a fine article on this in the Winter 1999-2000 edition of American Atheist Magazine.
Catholic schools started teaching the heliocentric solar system long before 1992. I attended a Catholic elementary school in the 1970s, and I remember we studied that version, so it's inconsistent that this vindication of Galileo was such a long time coming. The Church has been inconsistent before. The 16th Century English statesman and philosopher, Sir Thomas Moore, wrote a book called "Utopia" which was placed on the Vatican's index of forbidden books. He was later executed by King Henry VIII for refusing to condone his divorce, and for so doing was declared a martyr by the Catholic church, so St. Thomas Moore stands as a Catholic saint who wrote a book that was banned by the Catholic church.
It is definitely the truth that the Catholic church only stopped using violence to punish heresy because it lost the state power to do so. The power was not relinquished voluntarilly. The history of the Papal States well into the 19th Century is a history drenched in the blood of those who dared dissent.
--Kevin Walsh