65 Years of Priestly Life. The history of a Journey 26 4. Pope Benedict XVI Although one can see a gradual growth in the positive attitude of the Church towards evolution from Pius XII to John Paul II, there seems to be a cooling of this enthusiasm when one comes to Pope Benedict XVI. In fact, some scholars seem to consider him opposing Evolution, at least in some ways. There is evidence to show that he does not endorse Young Earth Evolutionism or Intelligent Design. Also, as mentioned above, the 2004 statement of the International Theological Commission headed by him shows certain openness. Moreover, in 1995 Cardinal Ratzinger, commenting on Genesis, had leaned towards a complementary view regarding the scientific and theological dimensions of creation in his book In the beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall. He writes: “We cannot say: creation or evolution, inasmuch as these two things respond to two different realities. The story of the dust of the earth and the breath of God ... does not in fact explain how human persons come to be but rather what they are... The theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments. But in so doing it cannot explain where the ‘project’ of human persons comes from, nor their inner origin, nor their particular nature. To that extent we are faced here with two complementary—rather than mutually exclusive—realities.” Again, in a conference organized in 2006 at Castel Gandolfo, Benedict pointed out that the issue involved in evolution, although they have important bearing on science, goes beyond the realm of science. In the same vein in a conference for clergy in 2007, the Pope found the heated debate that had been raging between creationists and evolutionists absurd because “on the one hand, there are so many scientific proofs in favour of evolution which appears to be a reality we can see and which enriches our knowledge of life and being as such. And how did everything start which ultimately led to man?” But on the other hand, these statements on different occasions show his keen interest in the great philosophical question: where does everything come from? The doctrine of Evolution does not answer every query, especially the subject as well as the serious reflection he has done on the theme. 5. International Conference on Evolution In March 2009 an international conference was convened in Rome under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Culture on the theme Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories, to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species. This seminar, attended by some of the most prominent scholars in the field, also came to the conclusion that there is no conflict between evolutionary theory and Catholic theology. In Conclusion we can say that, on the whole, the Catholic Church shows considerable openness and appreciation for evolution, although she has reservations on certain points. G. The Theistic Evolution Endorsed by the Catholic Church The Church’s official position seems to lean towards a form of Theistic Evolution —a view which takes the process of evolution seriously as something real that has been happening, mostly as science describes it, but which also assigns a necessary role for God in this process. The Church does not seem to be prepared to define that role the way Intelligent Design does. She also takes seriously the critical observation that the mechanism of evolution is still an unresolved issue, scientifically and religiously. IV. The Significance of the Statements of Pope Francis Our discussion above discloses that the Catholic Church has had a long-standing engagement with science, particularly on the theme of origin of the universe (the Big Bang Theory) and of the origin of life, particularly human life (Evolution). Pope Francis’s The theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments. But in so doing it cannot explain where the ‘project’ of human persons comes from, nor their inner origin, nor their particular nature.
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