Hi Larry

Galileo was encouraged to recant by a friend for fear he was damaging the Church's credibility - which it was struggling to retain in Europe due to the Reformation. Being devout he agreed to do so, so probably Benedict is considering that angle - that Galileo didn't defend himself for the sake of the Church. He might have won. He certainly had a lot of influential friends in the Church.

More politics than ideology or science in the end.

As for the relevance, I think the modern Church is struggling to be relevant while retaining faithfully the deposit of dogma it has inherited... no easy task.