Groups of Saint Ignatius seniors put Galileo back on trial in their Faith and Science class. In a continuation of a yearly tradition, seniors taking the single semester course will put Galileo back on the stand as a capstone to their first unit. The classroom was split into camps of courtroom officials featuring lawyers, a judge, a pope, and even Galileo himself. The trial took place on October 4 in room 222 where a mix of course material and student creativity was on full display.

Students performed a mock trial of the events that occured in 1633 in which Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church.  The trial allowed students to expand on their lessons from the first month of the course in ways that highlighted the relationships between Faith and Science before modern times.

The trial was intended to not only allow students to show off their knowledge, but as a method to keep enthusiasm high with presiding teacher Micheal McKeon. Mr. McKeon said, “The Galileo affair is so central to the understanding of Faith and Science. Father Taber and I thought the mock trial would be an interesting way, a fun way, for students to study the topic.” With all the research that was involved in this project, he said that “Hopefully through all that research [the students] were able to come to a better understanding on what the trial was all about, and that’s not just simply science, that there’s more to it than that.” As for the main goal on what students should be taking from this mock trial, Mr. McKeon stated, “The goal of the trial was to help students see that the Galileo affair is not the church vs. science.” As the trial date drew nearer, students participating in the project were interviewed, and asked to give their opinions.

Leo Chen, who defended Galileo, said, “In preparation, I had to research the witnesses and cross examine the witnesses.  Even though I got the witness to perjure himself, I found out I don’t want to be a lawyer.” 

Volo Sobko, who will be prosecuting Galileo, also gave his thoughts on the upcoming trial. “We”ve been learning about the relationship between Faith and Science… now we have a trial where we get to represent both sides.”

After the general success of this year’s mock trial, Mr. McKeon said, “There was a lot more evidence introduced, which showed the depth of research the kids were going to, so I think next year I will include a ‘discovery phase’ where both sides will share the evidence they will bring into the trial, so both sides can be prepared for whatever evidence is brought up.”