The papal study commission on the Galileo case was constituted in 1981. Pope John Paul II had called in 1979 for theologians, scholars, and historians to examine the affair more deeply and acknowledge wrongs on all sides.
The Vatican established the Pontifical Interdisciplinary Study Commission on 3 July 1981. Its work was divided among several fields, including biblical interpretation, culture, science and epistemology, and historical-legal research. The goal was not to retry Galileo’s 17th-century proceedings, but to reassess the relationship between scientific inquiry, theology, and the Church’s handling of the controversy.
The commission’s work was formally brought to a close in 1992, when John Paul II addressed the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The date is often confused with 1992 because that was the year of the closing statement, not the commission’s constitution. The 1979 date marks the pope’s earlier call for a renewed study.