Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church
Encyclopedia
Since the publication of Charles Darwin
's On the Origin of Species in 1859, the attitude of the Catholic Church on the theory of evolution
has slowly been refined. For about 100 years, there was no authoritative pronouncement on the subject. By 1950, Pope Pius XII agreed to the academic freedom to study the scientific implications of evolution, so long as Catholic dogma is not violated. , the Church's unofficial position is an example of theistic evolution
, also known as evolutionary creation, stating that faith
and scientific findings
regarding human evolution
are not in conflict, though humans are regarded as a special creation
, and that the existence of God
is required to explain both monogenism
and the spiritual
component of human origins. Moreover, the Church teaches that the process of evolution is a planned and purpose-driven natural process, actively guided by God.
and other fields. No high-level Church pronouncement has ever attacked head-on the theory of evolution as applied to non-human species.
The early Church Fathers taught creationism
—though there was debate being over whether God created the world in six days, as Clement of Alexandria
taught, or in a single moment as held by Augustine
, and a literal interpretation of Genesis was normally taken for granted in the Middle Ages
and later, until it was rejected in favour of uniformitarianism
(entailing far greater timeframes) by a majority of geologists in the 19th century. However modern literal creationism has had little support among the higher levels of the Church.
The Catholic Church delayed official pronouncements on Darwin's Origin of Species for many decades. While many hostile comments were made by local clergy, Origin of Species was never placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
; in contrast, Henri Bergson
's non-Darwinian Creative Evolution
(1907), was on the Index from 1948 until it was abolished in 1966. However, a number of Catholic writers who published works specifying how evolutionary theory and Catholic theology might be reconciled ran into trouble of some sort with the Vatican authorities.
The first notable statement after Darwin published his theory appeared in 1860 from a council of the German bishops, who pronounced:
No Vatican response was made to this, which some have taken to imply agreement. In the following decades, a consistently and aggressively anti-evolution position was taken by the influential Jesuit
periodical La Civiltà Cattolica
, which, though unofficial, was generally believed to have accurate information about the views and actions of the Vatican authorities. The opening in 1998 of the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
(in the 19th century called the Holy Office
and the Congregation of the Index) has revealed that on many crucial points this belief was mistaken, and the journal's accounts of specific cases, often the only ones made public, were not accurate. The original documents show the Vatican's attitude was much less fixed than appeared to be the case at the time.
In 1868, the Blessed
John Henry Newman corresponded with a fellow priest regarding Darwin's
theory and made the following comments:
In 1894 a letter was received by the Holy Office
, asking for confirmation of the Church's position on a theological book of generally Darwinist cast by a French Dominican
theologian, L’évolution restreinte aux espèces organiques, par le père Léroy dominicain. The records of the Holy Office document lengthy debates, with a number of experts consulted, whose views varied considerably. In 1895 the Congregation decided against the book, and Fr. Léroy was summoned to Rome, where it was explained that his views were unacceptable, and he agreed to withdraw the book, which was placed on the Index. Again, the concerns of the experts had concentrated entirely on human evolution
.
To reconcile general evolutionary theory with the origin of the human species, with a soul, the concept of "special transformism" was developed, according to which the first humans had evolved by Darwinist processes, up to the point where a soul was added by God to "pre-existent and living matter" (in the words of Pius XII's Humani Generis
) to form the first fully human individuals; this would normally be considered to be at the point of conception. Léroy's book endorsed this concept; what led to its rejection by the Congregation appears to have been his view that the human species was able to evolve without divine intervention to a fully human state, but lacking only a soul. The theologians felt that some immediate and particular divine intervention was also required to form the physical nature of humans, before the addition of a soul, even if this was worked on near-human hominids produced by evolutionary processes.
The following year, 1896, John Augustine Zahm
, a well-known American Holy Cross
priest who had been a professor of physics and chemistry at the Catholic University of Notre Dame
, Indiana, and was then Procurator General of his Order in Rome, published Evolution and Dogma, arguing that Church teaching, the Bible, and evolution did not conflict. By 1898 it had been placed on the Index and Zahm forced to recant his views, though he remained sufficiently well thought of to return to the United States as Provincial superior
of his Order. In the meantime his book (in an Italian translation with the imprimatur
of Siena
) had had a great impact on Geremia Bonomelli, the Bishop of Cremona in Italy, who added an appendix to a book of his own, summarizing and recommending Zahn's views. Bonomelli too was pressured, and retracted his views in a public letter, also in 1898.
, who defined dogmatically
papal infallibility
during the First Vatican Council
in 1869–70. The council has a section on "Faith and Reason" that includes the following on science and faith:
On God the Creator, the Vatican Council was very clear. The definitions preceding the "anathema" (as a technical term of Catholic
theology
, let him be "cut off" or excommunicated, cf. Galatians 1:6–9; Titus 3:10–11; Matthew 18:15–17) signify an infallible doctrine
of the Catholic Faith (De Fide):
According to Catholic theologian Dr. Ludwig Ott
in his 1952 treatise Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, it is to be understood that these condemnations are of the errors of modern materialism
(that matter is all there is), pantheism
(that God and the universe are identical), and ancient pagan and gnostic-manichean dualism
(where God is not responsible for the entire created world, since mere "matter" is evil not good, see Ott, page 79).
The First Vatican Council also upholds the ability of reason to know God from his creation:
, "On the Study of Holy Scripture", was an encyclical
issued by Pope Leo XIII
on 18 November 1893 on the interpretation of Scripture. It was intended to address the issues arising from both the "higher criticism" and new scientific theories, and their relation with Scripture. Nothing specific concerning evolution was said, and initially both those in favour and against evolution found things to encourage them in the text; however a more conservative interpretation came to be dominant, and the influence of the conservative Jesuit Cardinal Camillo Mazzella
detected. Leo stressed the unstable and changing nature of scientific theory, and criticised the "thirst for novelty and the unrestrained freedom of thought" of the age, but accepted that the apparent literal sense of the Bible might not always be correct. In biblical interpretation, Catholic scholars should not "depart from the literal and obvious sense, except only where reason makes it untenable or necessity requires". Leo stressed that both theologians and scientists should confine themselves to their own disciplines as much as possible.
An earlier encyclical of Leo's on marriage, Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae (1880) had described in passing the Genesis account of the creation of Eve
from Adam
's side as "what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any ..."
The Pontifical Biblical Commission
issued a decree ratified by Pope Pius X
on June 30, 1909 that stated that the literal historical meaning of the first chapters of Genesis could not be doubted in regard to "the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity of the human race....". As in 1860, "special creation" was only referred to in respect of the human species.
's encyclical
of 1950, Humani Generis
, was the first encyclical to specifically refer to evolution, and took up a neutral position, again concentrating on human evolution:
Pope Pius XII's teaching can be summarized as follows:
Some theologians believe Pius XII explicitly excludes belief in polygenism
as licit. The relevant sentence is this:
In an October 22, 1996, address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
, Pope John Paul II
updated the Church's position to accept evolution of the human body:
In the same address, Pope John Paul II rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul:
, a close colleague of Benedict XVI, especially a piece in The New York Times
on July 7, 2005, appeared to support Intelligent Design
, giving rise to speculation about a new direction in the Church's stance on the compatibility between evolution and Catholic dogma; many of Schönborn's complaints about Darwinian evolution echoed pronouncements originating from the Discovery Institute
, an interdenominational Christian think tank
. However, Cardinal Schönborn's book Chance or Purpose (2007, originally in German) accepted with certain qualifications the "scientific theory of evolution", but attacked "evolutionism as an ideology", which he said sought to displace religious teaching over a wide range of issues. Nonetheless, in the mid-1980s, Pope Benedict XVI, while serving as Prefect
of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
, wrote a defense of the doctrine of creation against Catholics who stressed the sufficiency of "selection and mutation". Humans, he insisted, are "not the products of chance and error", and "the universe is not the product of darkness and unreason; it comes from intelligence, freedom, and from the beauty that is identical with love."
A five-day conference held in March 2009 by the Pontifical University
in Rome, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, generally confirmed the lack of conflict between evolutionary theory and Catholic theology, and the rejection of Intelligent Design by Catholic scholars.
The Church has deferred to scientists on matters such as the age of the earth
and the authenticity of the fossil record. Papal pronouncements, along with commentaries by cardinals, have accepted the findings of scientists on the gradual
appearance of life. In fact, the International Theological Commission
in a July 2004 statement endorsed by Cardinal Ratzinger, then president of the Commission and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
, now Pope Benedict XVI
, includes this paragraph:
The Church's stance is that any such gradual appearance must have been guided in some way by God, but the Church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be. Commentators tend to interpret the Church's position in the way most favorable to their own arguments. The ITC statement includes these paragraphs on evolution, the providence of God, and "intelligent design":
In addition, while he was the Vatican's chief astronomer, Fr. George Coyne
, issued a statement on 18 November 2005 saying that "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." Cardinal Paul Poupard added that "the faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity." He also warned of the permanent lesson we have learned from the Galileo affair
, and that "we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism
." Fiorenzo Facchini, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna
, called intelligent design unscientific, and wrote in the January 16–17, 2006 edition L'Osservatore Romano: "But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science.... It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious. Kenneth R. Miller
is another prominent Catholic scientist widely known for vehemently opposing Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. Nevertheless, some Catholic scientists, such as John C. Sanford
and Michael Behe
have strongly opposed evolution and have supported the Intelligent design
movement, the latter individual even establishing the Center for Science and Culture
of the Discovery Institute
.
In a commentary on Genesis authored as Cardinal Ratzinger titled In the Beginning... Benedict XVI spoke of "the inner unity of creation and evolution and of faith and reason" and that these two realms of knowledge are complementary, not contradictory:
In a book released in 2008, his comments prior to becoming Pope were recorded as:
On September 2–3, 2006 at Castel Gandolfo
, Pope Benedict XVI conducted a seminar examining the theory of evolution and its impact on Catholicism's teaching of Creation. The seminar is the latest edition of the annual "Schülerkreis" or student circle, a meeting Benedict has held with his former Ph.D. students since the 1970s. The essays presented by his formers students, including natural scientists and theologians, were published in 2007 under the title Creation and Evolution (in German, Schöpfung und Evolution). In Pope Benedict's own contribution he states that "the question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science", and that "I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science."
In July 2007 at a meeting with clergy Pope Benedict XVI noted that the conflict between "creationism" and evolution (as a finding of science) is “absurd:”
In commenting on statements by his predecessor, he writes "it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory." Though commenting that experiments in a controlled environment were limited as "we cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory", he does not endorse Young Earth Creationism
or intelligent design
. He defends theistic evolution
, the reconciliation between science and religion already held by Catholics. In discussing evolution, he writes that "The process itself is rational despite the mistakes and confusion as it goes through a narrow corridor choosing a few positive mutation
s and using low probability.... This ... inevitably leads to a question that goes beyond science.... Where did this rationality come from?" to which he answers that it comes from the "creative reason" of God.
(1994, revised 1997) on faith, evolution and science states:
Paragraph 283 has been noted as making a positive comment regarding the theory of evolution, with the clarification that "many scientific studies" that have enriched knowledge of "the development of life-forms and the appearance of man" refers to mainstream science and not to "creation science
".
Concerning the doctrine on creation, Ludwig Ott in his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma identifies the following points as essential beliefs of the Catholic faith ("De Fide"):
is the belief, religious or scientific, that the human race descended from two or more ancestral types. This is in contrast to monogenism, which teaches that the human race has descended from a single pair of individuals.
Until recently polygenism was considered in the scientific community as a dubious hypothesis: in consequence theologians were discouraged from appropriating it into their writings. It also appeared irreconciliable with several important Catholic docrines, such as the doctrine of Original Sin
as inherited by all from Adam. Those who do teach it speculate that evolution brought about not a single couple but many men, who constituted the primitive human population. One of these, considered the leader of mankind, rebelled against God and that this sin passed on to all men, even those alive who did not yet know sin.
Accounting for polygenism would also appear to require new ways of understanding traditional interpretations of biblical episodes: In a learned compendium of Catholic dogmatic decrees - Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, from the marriage of the first man and woman in the Bible
, all men and women take their origin and that men then were divided into tribes and nations across the world.. Dogma further teaches that all men are descended from Adam, who was created from the Earth, and his wife, who came from his rib—that these first two did not have human parents who proceeded them.. Such snippets, however, lend themselves to reinterpretation in light of new scientific discovery, as they address theological dogma rather than define aspects of humanity's natural history.
Indeed, a 2004 report of the International Theological Commission, the body of theologians that officially gives theological advice to the pope, highlighted ways in which continuing research and growing consensus within the scientific community on the question of polygenism encourages Catholic theologians to consider ways of accommodating polygenism into their theological reflections. The commission observes, for example, the following:
“In its original unity – of which Adam is the symbol – the human race is made in the image of the divine Trinity.”
“While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage.”
“Catholic theology affirms that that the emergence of the first members of the human species (whether as individuals or in populations) represents an event that is not susceptible of a purely natural explanation and which can appropriately be attributed to divine intervention. Acting indirectly through causal chains operating from the beginning of cosmic history, God prepared the way for what Pope John Paul II has called ‘an ontological leap...the moment of transition to the spiritual.’”
The references to Adam as symbol, to "a humanoid population of common genetic lineage," and to Blessed John Paul II's identification of "an ontological leap," all demonstrate ways that official Catholic teaching is moving in the direction of appropriating not simply certain kinds of evolution theory, but also such once-dubious hypotheses, now theories such as polygenism.
s in the United States teach evolution as part of their science curriculum. They teach the fact that evolution occurs and the modern evolutionary synthesis
, which is the scientific theory that explains why evolution occurs. This is the same evolution curriculum that secular schools teach. Bishop DiLorenzo of Richmond, chair of the Committee on Science and Human Values in a December 2004 letter sent to all U.S. bishops: "... Catholic schools should continue teaching evolution as a scientific theory backed by convincing evidence. At the same time, Catholic parents whose children are in public schools should ensure that their children are also receiving appropriate catechesis at home and in the parish on God as Creator. Students should be able to leave their biology classes, and their courses in religious instruction, with an integrated understanding of the means God chose to make us who we are."
There are many Catholic organizations who gain insight into the relation between Catholic faith and evolution theory from the writings of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.. Despite occasional objections to aspects of his thought, Teilhard was never condemned by the magisterial church.
The website "catholic.net", successor to the "Catholic Information Center on the Internet", sometimes features polemics against evolution. Many "traditionalist" organizations are also opposed to evolution, see e.g. the theological journal Living Tradition.
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
's On the Origin of Species in 1859, the attitude of the Catholic Church on the theory of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
has slowly been refined. For about 100 years, there was no authoritative pronouncement on the subject. By 1950, Pope Pius XII agreed to the academic freedom to study the scientific implications of evolution, so long as Catholic dogma is not violated. , the Church's unofficial position is an example of theistic evolution
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...
, also known as evolutionary creation, stating that faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
and scientific findings
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
regarding human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
are not in conflict, though humans are regarded as a special creation
Special creation
In Creationism, special creation is a theological doctrine which states that the universe and all life in it originated by unconditional fiat or divine decree....
, and that the existence of God
God in Christianity
In Christianity, God is the eternal being that created and preserves the universe. God is believed by most Christians to be immanent , while others believe the plan of redemption show he will be immanent later...
is required to explain both monogenism
Recent African origin of modern humans
In paleoanthropology, the recent African origin of modern humans is the most widely accepted model describing the origin and early dispersal of anatomically modern humans...
and the spiritual
Spirituality
Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...
component of human origins. Moreover, the Church teaches that the process of evolution is a planned and purpose-driven natural process, actively guided by God.
Early reaction
Catholic concern about evolution has always been very largely concerned with the implications of evolutionary theory for the origin of the human species; even by 1859, the Church did not insist on a literal reading of the Book of Genesis, which had long been undermined by developments in geologyGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
and other fields. No high-level Church pronouncement has ever attacked head-on the theory of evolution as applied to non-human species.
The early Church Fathers taught creationism
Creationism
Creationism is the religious beliefthat humanity, life, the Earth, and the universe are the creation of a supernatural being, most often referring to the Abrahamic god. As science developed from the 18th century onwards, various views developed which aimed to reconcile science with the Genesis...
—though there was debate being over whether God created the world in six days, as Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria
Titus Flavius Clemens , known as Clement of Alexandria , was a Christian theologian and the head of the noted Catechetical School of Alexandria. Clement is best remembered as the teacher of Origen...
taught, or in a single moment as held by Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, and a literal interpretation of Genesis was normally taken for granted in the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and later, until it was rejected in favour of uniformitarianism
Uniformitarianism
In the philosophy of naturalism, the uniformitarianism assumption is that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe. It has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is the...
(entailing far greater timeframes) by a majority of geologists in the 19th century. However modern literal creationism has had little support among the higher levels of the Church.
The Catholic Church delayed official pronouncements on Darwin's Origin of Species for many decades. While many hostile comments were made by local clergy, Origin of Species was never placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum
Index Librorum Prohibitorum
The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a list of publications prohibited by the Catholic Church. A first version was promulgated by Pope Paul IV in 1559, and a revised and somewhat relaxed form was authorized at the Council of Trent...
; in contrast, Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
's non-Darwinian Creative Evolution
Creative Evolution (book)
Creative Evolution is a 1907 book by French philosopher Henri Bergson. Its English translation appeared in 1911. The book provides an alternate explanation for Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by an élan vital, a "vital impetus" that can also be understood...
(1907), was on the Index from 1948 until it was abolished in 1966. However, a number of Catholic writers who published works specifying how evolutionary theory and Catholic theology might be reconciled ran into trouble of some sort with the Vatican authorities.
The first notable statement after Darwin published his theory appeared in 1860 from a council of the German bishops, who pronounced:
No Vatican response was made to this, which some have taken to imply agreement. In the following decades, a consistently and aggressively anti-evolution position was taken by the influential Jesuit
Society of Jesus
The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...
periodical La Civiltà Cattolica
La Civiltà Cattolica
La Civiltà Cattolica is a Rome based Italian biweekly magazine printed by the Jesuits. The bimonthly journal was founded in 1850 with papal funding by order of the Pope and readers have recognised it as representing contemporary Vatican opinion. It has been praised and highly regarded by readers...
, which, though unofficial, was generally believed to have accurate information about the views and actions of the Vatican authorities. The opening in 1998 of the Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Archive of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican , commonly referred to as the Archive of the Inquisition , contains the Catholic Church's documents dealing with doctrinal and theological issues related to church...
(in the 19th century called the Holy Office
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
and the Congregation of the Index) has revealed that on many crucial points this belief was mistaken, and the journal's accounts of specific cases, often the only ones made public, were not accurate. The original documents show the Vatican's attitude was much less fixed than appeared to be the case at the time.
In 1868, the Blessed
Beatification
Beatification is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a dead person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his or her name . Beatification is the third of the four steps in the canonization process...
John Henry Newman corresponded with a fellow priest regarding Darwin's
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
theory and made the following comments:
In 1894 a letter was received by the Holy Office
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
, asking for confirmation of the Church's position on a theological book of generally Darwinist cast by a French Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
theologian, L’évolution restreinte aux espèces organiques, par le père Léroy dominicain. The records of the Holy Office document lengthy debates, with a number of experts consulted, whose views varied considerably. In 1895 the Congregation decided against the book, and Fr. Léroy was summoned to Rome, where it was explained that his views were unacceptable, and he agreed to withdraw the book, which was placed on the Index. Again, the concerns of the experts had concentrated entirely on human evolution
Human evolution
Human evolution refers to the evolutionary history of the genus Homo, including the emergence of Homo sapiens as a distinct species and as a unique category of hominids and mammals...
.
To reconcile general evolutionary theory with the origin of the human species, with a soul, the concept of "special transformism" was developed, according to which the first humans had evolved by Darwinist processes, up to the point where a soul was added by God to "pre-existent and living matter" (in the words of Pius XII's Humani Generis
Humani Generis
Humani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine"...
) to form the first fully human individuals; this would normally be considered to be at the point of conception. Léroy's book endorsed this concept; what led to its rejection by the Congregation appears to have been his view that the human species was able to evolve without divine intervention to a fully human state, but lacking only a soul. The theologians felt that some immediate and particular divine intervention was also required to form the physical nature of humans, before the addition of a soul, even if this was worked on near-human hominids produced by evolutionary processes.
The following year, 1896, John Augustine Zahm
John Augustine Zahm
Father John Augustine Zahm, CSC was a Holy Cross priest, author, scientist, and South American explorer. He was born at New Lexington, Ohio and died in Munich, Germany....
, a well-known American Holy Cross
Congregation of Holy Cross
The Congregation of Holy Cross or Congregatio a Sancta Cruce is a Catholic congregation of priests and brothers founded in 1837 by Blessed Father Basil Anthony-Marie Moreau, CSC, in Le Mans, France....
priest who had been a professor of physics and chemistry at the Catholic University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
, Indiana, and was then Procurator General of his Order in Rome, published Evolution and Dogma, arguing that Church teaching, the Bible, and evolution did not conflict. By 1898 it had been placed on the Index and Zahm forced to recant his views, though he remained sufficiently well thought of to return to the United States as Provincial superior
Provincial superior
A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...
of his Order. In the meantime his book (in an Italian translation with the imprimatur
Imprimatur
An imprimatur is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement.-Catholic Church:...
of Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
) had had a great impact on Geremia Bonomelli, the Bishop of Cremona in Italy, who added an appendix to a book of his own, summarizing and recommending Zahn's views. Bonomelli too was pressured, and retracted his views in a public letter, also in 1898.
Pope Pius IX
On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, during the papacy of Pope Pius IXPope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
, who defined dogmatically
Dogmatic definition
In Catholicism, a dogmatic definition is an extraordinary infallible statement published by a pope or an ecumenical council concerning a matter of faith or morals, the belief in which the Catholic Church requires of all Christians .The term most often refers to the infallible...
papal infallibility
Papal infallibility
Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when in his official capacity he solemnly declares or promulgates to the universal Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals...
during the First Vatican Council
First Vatican Council
The First Vatican Council was convoked by Pope Pius IX on 29 June 1868, after a period of planning and preparation that began on 6 December 1864. This twentieth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, held three centuries after the Council of Trent, opened on 8 December 1869 and adjourned...
in 1869–70. The council has a section on "Faith and Reason" that includes the following on science and faith:
- "9. Hence all faithful Christians are forbidden to defend as the legitimate conclusions of science those opinions which are known to be contrary to the doctrine of faith, particularly if they have been condemned by the Church; and furthermore they are absolutely bound to hold them to be errors which wear the deceptive appearance of truth." (Vatican Council I)
- "10. Not only can faith and reasonReasonReason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...
never be at odds with one another but they mutually support each other, for on the one hand right reason established the foundations of the faith and, illuminated by its light, develops the science of divine things; on the other hand, faith delivers reason from errors and protects it and furnishes it with knowledge of many kinds." (Vatican Council I)
On God the Creator, the Vatican Council was very clear. The definitions preceding the "anathema" (as a technical term of Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, let him be "cut off" or excommunicated, cf. Galatians 1:6–9; Titus 3:10–11; Matthew 18:15–17) signify an infallible doctrine
Doctrine
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...
of the Catholic Faith (De Fide):
- On God the creator of all things
- If anyone denies the one true God, creator and lord of things visible and invisible: let him be anathema.
- If anyone is so bold as to assert that there exists nothing besides matter: let him be anathema.
- If anyone says that the substance or essence of God and that of all things are one and the same: let him be anathema.
- If anyone says that finite things, both corporal and spiritual, or at any rate, spiritual, emanated from the divine substance; or that the divine essence, by the manifestation and evolution of itself becomes all things or, finally, that God is a universal or indefinite being which by self determination establishes the totality of things distinct in genera, species and individuals: let him be anathema.
- If anyone does not confess that the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, were produced, according to their whole substance, out of nothingEx nihiloEx nihilo is a Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing"—chiefly in philosophical or theological contexts, but also occurs in other fields.In theology, the common phrase creatio ex...
by God; or holds that God did not create by his will free from all necessityFree will"To make my own decisions whether I am successful or not due to uncontrollable forces" -Troy MorrisonA pragmatic definition of free willFree will is the ability of agents to make choices free from certain kinds of constraints. The existence of free will and its exact nature and definition have long...
, but as necessarily as he necessarily loves himself; or denies that the world was created for the glory of God: let him be anathema.
According to Catholic theologian Dr. Ludwig Ott
Ludwig Ott
Ludwig Ott was a Catholic theologian and Medievalist from Bavaria....
in his 1952 treatise Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, it is to be understood that these condemnations are of the errors of modern materialism
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
(that matter is all there is), pantheism
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
(that God and the universe are identical), and ancient pagan and gnostic-manichean dualism
Dualism
Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general or common usages. Dualism can refer to moral dualism, Dualism (from...
(where God is not responsible for the entire created world, since mere "matter" is evil not good, see Ott, page 79).
The First Vatican Council also upholds the ability of reason to know God from his creation:
- "1. The same Holy mother Church holds and teaches that God, the source and end of all things, can be known with certainty from the consideration of created things, by the natural power of human reason: ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made." (Chapter 2, On Revelation; cf. Romans 1:19–20; and Wisdom chapter 13)
Popes Leo XIII and Pius X
Providentissimus DeusProvidentissimus Deus
Providentissimus Deus, "On the Study of Holy Scripture", was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 18 November 1893.In it, he reviewed the history of Bible study from the time of the Church Fathers to the present, spoke against the errors of the Rationalists and "higher critics", and outlined...
, "On the Study of Holy Scripture", was an encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
issued by Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
on 18 November 1893 on the interpretation of Scripture. It was intended to address the issues arising from both the "higher criticism" and new scientific theories, and their relation with Scripture. Nothing specific concerning evolution was said, and initially both those in favour and against evolution found things to encourage them in the text; however a more conservative interpretation came to be dominant, and the influence of the conservative Jesuit Cardinal Camillo Mazzella
Camillo Mazzella
Camillo Mazzella was an Italian Jesuit theologian and cardinal.He was born at Vitulano, near Benevento, and died in Rome....
detected. Leo stressed the unstable and changing nature of scientific theory, and criticised the "thirst for novelty and the unrestrained freedom of thought" of the age, but accepted that the apparent literal sense of the Bible might not always be correct. In biblical interpretation, Catholic scholars should not "depart from the literal and obvious sense, except only where reason makes it untenable or necessity requires". Leo stressed that both theologians and scientists should confine themselves to their own disciplines as much as possible.
An earlier encyclical of Leo's on marriage, Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae (1880) had described in passing the Genesis account of the creation of Eve
Eve
Eve is the first woman created by God in the Book of Genesis.Eve may also refer to:-People:*Eve , a common given name and surname*Eve , American recording artist and actress-Places:...
from Adam
Adam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
's side as "what is to all known, and cannot be doubted by any ..."
The Pontifical Biblical Commission
Pontifical Biblical Commission
The Pontifical Biblical Commission is an organism established within the Roman Curia to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of Sacred Scripture.-The Commission 1901-1971:...
issued a decree ratified by Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
on June 30, 1909 that stated that the literal historical meaning of the first chapters of Genesis could not be doubted in regard to "the creation of all things by God at the beginning of time; the special creation of man; the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity of the human race....". As in 1860, "special creation" was only referred to in respect of the human species.
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XIIPope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
's encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
of 1950, Humani Generis
Humani Generis
Humani generis is a papal encyclical that Pope Pius XII promulgated on 12 August 1950 "concerning some false opinions threatening to undermine the foundations of Catholic Doctrine"...
, was the first encyclical to specifically refer to evolution, and took up a neutral position, again concentrating on human evolution:
- "The Church does not forbid that ... research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter."
Pope Pius XII's teaching can be summarized as follows:
- The question of the origin of man's body from pre-existing and living matter is a legitimate matter of inquiry for natural scienceNatural scienceThe natural sciences are branches of science that seek to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world by using empirical and scientific methods...
. Catholics are free to form their own opinions, but they should do so cautiously; they should not confuse factFactA fact is something that has really occurred or is actually the case. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability, that is whether it can be shown to correspond to experience. Standard reference works are often used to check facts...
with conjectureConjectureA conjecture is a proposition that is unproven but is thought to be true and has not been disproven. Karl Popper pioneered the use of the term "conjecture" in scientific philosophy. Conjecture is contrasted by hypothesis , which is a testable statement based on accepted grounds...
, and they should respect the Church's right to define matters touching on RevelationRevelationIn religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
. - Catholics must believe, however, that the human soul was created immediately by God. Since the soul is a spiritual substance it is not brought into being through transformation of matter, but directly by God, whence the special uniqueness of each person.
- All men have descended from an individual, AdamAdamAdam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
, who has transmitted original sin to all mankind. Catholics may not, therefore, believe in "polygenism", the scientific hypothesis that mankind descended from a group of original humans (that there were many Adams and Eves).
Some theologians believe Pius XII explicitly excludes belief in polygenism
Polygenism
Polygenism is a theory of human origins positing that the human races are of different lineages . This is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity.- Origins :...
as licit. The relevant sentence is this:
- "Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion (polygenism) can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own." (Pius XII, Humani Generis, 37 and footnote refers to Romans 5:12–19; Council of Trent, Session V, Canons 1–4)
Pope John Paul II
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences is a scientific academy of the Vatican, founded in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. It is placed under the protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of related...
, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
updated the Church's position to accept evolution of the human body:
- "In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points.... Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies—which was neither planned nor sought—constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."
In the same address, Pope John Paul II rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul:
- "Theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as emergingEmergenceIn philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions. Emergence is central to the theories of integrative levels and of complex systems....
from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man."
Pope Benedict XVI and today
Statements by Cardinal SchönbornChristoph Cardinal Schönborn
Christoph Maria Michael Hugo Damian Peter Adalbert Schönborn, OP is an Austrian Cardinal of the Catholic Church and theologian. He currently serves as the Archbishop of Vienna and President of the Austrian Bishops Conference...
, a close colleague of Benedict XVI, especially a piece in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
on July 7, 2005, appeared to support Intelligent Design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, giving rise to speculation about a new direction in the Church's stance on the compatibility between evolution and Catholic dogma; many of Schönborn's complaints about Darwinian evolution echoed pronouncements originating from the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
, an interdenominational Christian think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
. However, Cardinal Schönborn's book Chance or Purpose (2007, originally in German) accepted with certain qualifications the "scientific theory of evolution", but attacked "evolutionism as an ideology", which he said sought to displace religious teaching over a wide range of issues. Nonetheless, in the mid-1980s, Pope Benedict XVI, while serving as Prefect
Prefect
Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....
of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
, wrote a defense of the doctrine of creation against Catholics who stressed the sufficiency of "selection and mutation". Humans, he insisted, are "not the products of chance and error", and "the universe is not the product of darkness and unreason; it comes from intelligence, freedom, and from the beauty that is identical with love."
A five-day conference held in March 2009 by the Pontifical University
Pontifical university
A pontifical university is a Catholic University established by and directly under the authority of the Holy See. It is licensed to grant academic degrees in sacred faculties, the most important of which are Sacred Theology, Canon Law, Sacred Scripture and...
in Rome, marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species, generally confirmed the lack of conflict between evolutionary theory and Catholic theology, and the rejection of Intelligent Design by Catholic scholars.
The Church has deferred to scientists on matters such as the age of the earth
Age of the Earth
The age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years This age is based on evidence from radiometric age dating of meteorite material and is consistent with the ages of the oldest-known terrestrial and lunar samples...
and the authenticity of the fossil record. Papal pronouncements, along with commentaries by cardinals, have accepted the findings of scientists on the gradual
Gradualism
Gradualism is the belief in or the policy of advancing toward a goal by gradual, often slow stages.-Politics and society:In politics, the concept of gradualism is used to describe the belief that change ought to be brought about in small, discrete increments rather than in abrupt strokes such as...
appearance of life. In fact, the International Theological Commission
International Theological Commission
The International Theological Commission of the Roman Catholic Church consists of up to 30 Catholic theologians from around the world. These theologians are appointed for renewable five year terms and have tended to meet together in person once every year for a week...
in a July 2004 statement endorsed by Cardinal Ratzinger, then president of the Commission and head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...
, now Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, includes this paragraph:
The Church's stance is that any such gradual appearance must have been guided in some way by God, but the Church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be. Commentators tend to interpret the Church's position in the way most favorable to their own arguments. The ITC statement includes these paragraphs on evolution, the providence of God, and "intelligent design":
In addition, while he was the Vatican's chief astronomer, Fr. George Coyne
George Coyne
George V. Coyne, S.J. is a Jesuit priest, astronomer, and former director of the Vatican Observatory and head of the observatory’s research group which is based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.-Scientific education:...
, issued a statement on 18 November 2005 saying that "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science." Cardinal Paul Poupard added that "the faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity." He also warned of the permanent lesson we have learned from the Galileo affair
Galileo affair
The Galileo affair was a sequence of events, beginning around 1610, during which Galileo Galilei came into conflict with the Aristotelian scientific view of the universe , over his support of Copernican astronomy....
, and that "we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
." Fiorenzo Facchini, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...
, called intelligent design unscientific, and wrote in the January 16–17, 2006 edition L'Osservatore Romano: "But it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science.... It only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious. Kenneth R. Miller
Kenneth R. Miller
Kenneth Raymond Miller is a biology professor at Brown University. Miller, who is Roman Catholic, is particularly known for his opposition to creationism, including the intelligent design movement...
is another prominent Catholic scientist widely known for vehemently opposing Young Earth Creationism and Intelligent Design. Nevertheless, some Catholic scientists, such as John C. Sanford
John C. Sanford
-Academic career:Sanford graduated in 1976 from the University of Minnesota with a BSc in horticulture. He then went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he received an MSc in 1978 and a PhD in 1980 in plant breeding and genetics. Between 1980 and 1986 Sanford was an assistant professor at...
and Michael Behe
Michael Behe
Michael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
have strongly opposed evolution and have supported the Intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
movement, the latter individual even establishing the Center for Science and Culture
Center for Science and Culture
The Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
of the Discovery Institute
Discovery Institute
The Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
.
In a commentary on Genesis authored as Cardinal Ratzinger titled In the Beginning... Benedict XVI spoke of "the inner unity of creation and evolution and of faith and reason" and that these two realms of knowledge are complementary, not contradictory:
In a book released in 2008, his comments prior to becoming Pope were recorded as:
On September 2–3, 2006 at Castel Gandolfo
Castel Gandolfo
Castel Gandolfo is a small Italian town or comune in Lazio that occupies a height overlooking Lake Albano about 15 miles south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills. It is best known as the summer residence of the Pope. It is an Italian town with the population of 8834...
, Pope Benedict XVI conducted a seminar examining the theory of evolution and its impact on Catholicism's teaching of Creation. The seminar is the latest edition of the annual "Schülerkreis" or student circle, a meeting Benedict has held with his former Ph.D. students since the 1970s. The essays presented by his formers students, including natural scientists and theologians, were published in 2007 under the title Creation and Evolution (in German, Schöpfung und Evolution). In Pope Benedict's own contribution he states that "the question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science, or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science", and that "I find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science."
In July 2007 at a meeting with clergy Pope Benedict XVI noted that the conflict between "creationism" and evolution (as a finding of science) is “absurd:”
In commenting on statements by his predecessor, he writes "it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory." Though commenting that experiments in a controlled environment were limited as "we cannot haul 10,000 generations into the laboratory", he does not endorse Young Earth Creationism
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
or intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
. He defends theistic evolution
Theistic evolution
Theistic evolution or evolutionary creation is a concept that asserts that classical religious teachings about God are compatible with the modern scientific understanding about biological evolution...
, the reconciliation between science and religion already held by Catholics. In discussing evolution, he writes that "The process itself is rational despite the mistakes and confusion as it goes through a narrow corridor choosing a few positive mutation
Mutation
In molecular biology and genetics, mutations are changes in a genomic sequence: the DNA sequence of a cell's genome or the DNA or RNA sequence of a virus. They can be defined as sudden and spontaneous changes in the cell. Mutations are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic...
s and using low probability.... This ... inevitably leads to a question that goes beyond science.... Where did this rationality come from?" to which he answers that it comes from the "creative reason" of God.
Catholic teaching and evolution
The Catechism of the Catholic ChurchCatechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church is the official text of the teachings of the Catholic Church. A provisional, "reference text" was issued by Pope John Paul II on October 11, 1992 — "the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council" — with his apostolic...
(1994, revised 1997) on faith, evolution and science states:
Paragraph 283 has been noted as making a positive comment regarding the theory of evolution, with the clarification that "many scientific studies" that have enriched knowledge of "the development of life-forms and the appearance of man" refers to mainstream science and not to "creation science
Creation science
Creation Science or scientific creationism is a branch of creationism that attempts to provide scientific support for the Genesis creation narrative in the Book of Genesis and disprove generally accepted scientific facts, theories and scientific paradigms about the history of the Earth, cosmology...
".
Concerning the doctrine on creation, Ludwig Ott in his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma identifies the following points as essential beliefs of the Catholic faith ("De Fide"):
- All that exists outside God was, in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God.
- God was moved by His Goodness to create the world.
- The world was created for the Glorification of God.
- The Three Divine Persons are one single, common Principle of the Creation.
- God created the world free from exterior compulsion and inner necessity.
- God has created a good world.
- The world had a beginning in time.
- God alone created the world.
- God keeps all created things in existence.
- God, through His Providence, protects and guides all that He has created.
Polygenism
PolygenismPolygenism
Polygenism is a theory of human origins positing that the human races are of different lineages . This is opposite to the idea of monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity.- Origins :...
is the belief, religious or scientific, that the human race descended from two or more ancestral types. This is in contrast to monogenism, which teaches that the human race has descended from a single pair of individuals.
Until recently polygenism was considered in the scientific community as a dubious hypothesis: in consequence theologians were discouraged from appropriating it into their writings. It also appeared irreconciliable with several important Catholic docrines, such as the doctrine of Original Sin
Original sin
Original sin is, according to a Christian theological doctrine, humanity's state of sin resulting from the Fall of Man. This condition has been characterized in many ways, ranging from something as insignificant as a slight deficiency, or a tendency toward sin yet without collective guilt, referred...
as inherited by all from Adam. Those who do teach it speculate that evolution brought about not a single couple but many men, who constituted the primitive human population. One of these, considered the leader of mankind, rebelled against God and that this sin passed on to all men, even those alive who did not yet know sin.
Accounting for polygenism would also appear to require new ways of understanding traditional interpretations of biblical episodes: In a learned compendium of Catholic dogmatic decrees - Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma, from the marriage of the first man and woman in the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
, all men and women take their origin and that men then were divided into tribes and nations across the world.. Dogma further teaches that all men are descended from Adam, who was created from the Earth, and his wife, who came from his rib—that these first two did not have human parents who proceeded them.. Such snippets, however, lend themselves to reinterpretation in light of new scientific discovery, as they address theological dogma rather than define aspects of humanity's natural history.
Indeed, a 2004 report of the International Theological Commission, the body of theologians that officially gives theological advice to the pope, highlighted ways in which continuing research and growing consensus within the scientific community on the question of polygenism encourages Catholic theologians to consider ways of accommodating polygenism into their theological reflections. The commission observes, for example, the following:
“In its original unity – of which Adam is the symbol – the human race is made in the image of the divine Trinity.”
“While the story of human origins is complex and subject to revision, physical anthropology and molecular biology combine to make a convincing case for the origin of the human species in Africa about 150,000 years ago in a humanoid population of common genetic lineage.”
“Catholic theology affirms that that the emergence of the first members of the human species (whether as individuals or in populations) represents an event that is not susceptible of a purely natural explanation and which can appropriately be attributed to divine intervention. Acting indirectly through causal chains operating from the beginning of cosmic history, God prepared the way for what Pope John Paul II has called ‘an ontological leap...the moment of transition to the spiritual.’”
The references to Adam as symbol, to "a humanoid population of common genetic lineage," and to Blessed John Paul II's identification of "an ontological leap," all demonstrate ways that official Catholic teaching is moving in the direction of appropriating not simply certain kinds of evolution theory, but also such once-dubious hypotheses, now theories such as polygenism.
Catholic schools and evolution
As in other countries, Catholic schoolCatholic school
Catholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...
s in the United States teach evolution as part of their science curriculum. They teach the fact that evolution occurs and the modern evolutionary synthesis
Modern evolutionary synthesis
The modern evolutionary synthesis is a union of ideas from several biological specialties which provides a widely accepted account of evolution...
, which is the scientific theory that explains why evolution occurs. This is the same evolution curriculum that secular schools teach. Bishop DiLorenzo of Richmond, chair of the Committee on Science and Human Values in a December 2004 letter sent to all U.S. bishops: "... Catholic schools should continue teaching evolution as a scientific theory backed by convincing evidence. At the same time, Catholic parents whose children are in public schools should ensure that their children are also receiving appropriate catechesis at home and in the parish on God as Creator. Students should be able to leave their biology classes, and their courses in religious instruction, with an integrated understanding of the means God chose to make us who we are."
Unofficial Catholic organizations
There have been several organizations composed of Catholic laity and clergy which have advocated positions both supporting evolution and opposed to evolution. For example:- The Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation operates out of Mt. Jackson, Virginia and is a Catholic lay apostolate promoting creationism.
- The "Faith Movement" was founded by Catholic Fr. Edward Holloway in Surrey, England and "argues from Evolution as a fact, that the whole process would be impossible without the existence of the Supreme Mind we call God."
- The "Daylight Origins SocietyDaylight Origins Society-Circle Scientifique et Historique:Circle Scientifique et Historique , was founded in 1971 in Belgium to preserve and disseminate the work of French creationist Fernand Crombette.-Daylight Origins Society:...
" was founded in 1971 by John G. Campbell (d.1983) as the "Counter Evolution Group". Its goal is "to inform Catholics and others of the scientific evidence supporting Special Creation as opposed to Evolution, and that the true discoveries of Science are in conformity with Catholic doctrines." It publishes the "Daylight" newsletter.
- The Center for Science and CultureCenter for Science and CultureThe Center for Science and Culture , formerly known as the Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture , is part of the Discovery Institute, a conservative Christian think tank in the United States...
of the Discovery InstituteDiscovery InstituteThe Discovery Institute is a non-profit public policy think tank based in Seattle, Washington, best known for its advocacy of intelligent design...
was founded, in part, by Catholic biochemist Michael BeheMichael BeheMichael J. Behe is an American biochemist, author, and intelligent design advocate. He currently serves as professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania and as a senior fellow of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture...
, who is currently a senior fellow at the Center.
There are many Catholic organizations who gain insight into the relation between Catholic faith and evolution theory from the writings of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.. Despite occasional objections to aspects of his thought, Teilhard was never condemned by the magisterial church.
The website "catholic.net", successor to the "Catholic Information Center on the Internet", sometimes features polemics against evolution. Many "traditionalist" organizations are also opposed to evolution, see e.g. the theological journal Living Tradition.
See also
- Erich WasmannErich WasmannErich Wasmann was an Austrian entomologist, specializing in ants and termites, and Jesuit priest. He described the phenomenon known as Wasmannian mimicry. Wasmann was a supporter of evolution, although he did not accept the productivity of natural selection, the evolution of humans from other...
- St. George Jackson Mivart
- Relationship between religion and scienceRelationship between religion and scienceThe relationship between religion and science has been a focus of the demarcation problem. Somewhat related is the claim that science and religion may pursue knowledge using different methodologies. Whereas the scientific method basically relies on reason and empiricism, religion also seeks to...
- Jainism and non-creationismJainism and non-creationismJainism does not support belief in a creator deity. According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents - soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion have always existed . All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws...
- Jewish views on evolutionJewish views on evolutionJewish views on evolution includes a continuum of views about evolution, creationism, and the origin of life. Today, many Jews accept the science of evolutionary theory and do not see it as incompatible with traditional Judaism, thus endorsing theistic evolution.-Classical rabbinic teachings :The...
- Hindu views on evolutionHindu views on evolutionHinduism includes a range of viewpoints about the origin of life, creationism and evolution. The accounts of the emergence of life within the universe vary in description, but classically the god Brahma, from a Trimurti of three gods also including Vishnu and Shiva, is described as performing the...
- Catholic Church and scienceCatholic Church and scienceThe relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and science is a widely debated subject, where, diverse and even opposing opinions have been strongly argued by historians, theologians, and scientists. Catholic theologians contend that natural reason being a God-given capacity, is not opposed to...
Further reading
- Bennett, Gaymon, Hess, Peter M. J. and others, The Evolution of Evil, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2008, ISBN 3-525-56979-3, 9783525569795, Google books (google books)
- Kung, HansHans KüngHans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...
, The beginning of all things: science and religion, trans. John Bowden, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2007, ISBN 0-8028-0763-1, 9780802807632. Google books - Olson, Richard, Science and religion, 1450–1900: from Copernicus to Darwin, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0-313-32694-0, 9780313326943. Google books
External links
- Vatican Council I (1869–70), the full documents.
- Evolutionary Creation: A Christian Approach to Evolution by Denis LamoureuxDenis LamoureuxDenis O. Lamoureux is a professor of science and religion at St. Joseph's College at the University of Alberta, Canada. He has doctoral degrees in dentistry, theology, and biology. He is the author of Evolutionary Creation and I love Jesus and I accept evolution. Along with Phillip E...
(St. Joseph's College, EdmontonSt. Joseph's College, EdmontonSt. Joseph's College is a Catholic, undergraduate, liberal arts college that also serves as a residence and place of worship for the Catholic community on campus...
) - 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia: Catholics and Evolution and Evolution, History and Scientific Foundation of
- Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis 1950 encyclical
- Roberto Masi, "The Credo of Paul VI: Theology of Original Sin and the Scientific Theory of Evolution" (L'Osservatore Romano, 17 April 1969).
- Pope John Paul II, general audience of 10 July 1985. "Proofs for God's Existence are Many and Convergent".
- Cardinal Ratzinger's Commentary on Genesis Excerpts from In the Beginning: A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall.
- International Theological Commission (2004). "Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God".
- Cardinal Paul Poupard, "Vatican Cardinal: Listen to What Modern Science has to Offer", November 3, 2005.
- Mark Brumley, "Evolution and the Pope, of Ignatius Insight
- John L. Allen Teaching of Benedict XVI on Evolution before becoming Pope.
- Benedict XVI's inaugural address.
- Pontifical Academy of Sciences