With regard to other kinds of ‘progress’ (in the disciplines of knowledge, for instance, across epistemologies), the Church is not, as certain elements in our society would have us believe, repressive and tyrannical, even if one can point to instances wherein those who represent the Church have made errors in judgment concerning the question of how advances in knowledge ought to be taught, or expressed. I’m thinking of the well-known cases of Copernicus and Galileo (both of whom were Catholic, and who did not regard themselves as lapsed, or contrarian, even when their orthodoxy was questioned, and their reputations impugned).