Why was the Catholic Church angered by the findings of Copernicus and Galileo?

Answer 1

They were not angered by the conjectures of Copernicus and Galileo, but they were displeased with Galileo trumpeting that the heliocentric principle with the Sun at the centre was the absolute truth, without enough evidence in the church's opinion, and writing a book that ridiculed the Pope.

In court Galileo was asked for proof and after being unable to provide it he recanted and was let off with a light sentence.

However in the following centuries more evidence piled up and a new and accurate dynamic model of the solar system, which had the Sun at the centre, was devised by scientists including Newton and Lagrange.

During Galileo's lifetime there was not enough evidence so he was wrong in the light of knowledge as it stood during his lifetime, but the principle was later generally accepted.

Galileo in his early years had supported the geocentric theory with the Earth at the centre, arguing that the 'fixed' stars showed no apparent movement as the Earth supposedly travelled round the Sun, therefore the Earth must be fixed. This point was not answered until 1838 when Bessel measured the parallax of a nearby star that moved a very small amount in time with the Earth's progress round the Sun. Thus it took until the 19th century for techniques to be discovered that could observe the very slight movements of nearby stars and this was the killer blow for the geocentric theory.

Answer 2

Of course not. Don't be ridiculous. First of all, the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. As such, she is concerned about people's eternal salvation. Copernicus was on very good terms with officials in the Church, and even dedicated his work to the Holy Father at that time. Galileo also started off on good terms with everyone, but he was not exactly an easy man to get along with and managed to get the Pope (who was a personal friend of his) rather angry. Galileo maligned people and would not cooperate when officials were very lenient with him, just asking him to only teach as a theory until he had proof, which he never had - he couldn't have, the equipment had not yet been invented with which to prove his theories.