STANCES and RESPONSES

• INITIAL STANCE 1859

  • Resistance of public comment on the theory, despite it being a point of contention in everyday conversation. 

  In part, this was due to the wariness in repeating the embarrassment of Galileo.

  • Belief that Earth revolves around the Sun was deemed heretical by the Catholic Church, as the Earth was the centre of the Universe, which lead to the Galileo being excommunicated. 
• Stance 2 - 1860 in Cologne, Germany 


  CONDEMNATION

  ‘Our first parents were formed immediately by God, therefore we declare that the [theory of evolution] is clearly opposed to sacred Scripture and to the faith’.
• Stance 3 - 1870 


  Condemnation by Pope Pius IX, in his Vatican Encyclical, God the Creator of All Things

  • Article 5: If anyone does not confess that the world...were produced...out of nothing by God...let him be anathema.”
• Providentissium Deus Pope Leo XII(1983)


  Sacred writers ‘did not seek to penetrate the secrets of nature, but rather describes and dealt with things in more or less figurative language’ #8
• Stance 4 - 1950


  Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII

  • 'evolution Cannot be a total theory of human design' → '[human sciences] enquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—[but] the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God'
• Stance 5 - 1960 


  Second Vatican Council - absorption though still reservations

  • Pastoral Constitution in the Modern World: ‘The human race has passed from a rather static concept of reality to a more dynamic, evolutionary one’. 
• Stance 6 - 1996


  John Paul II reaffirmed there was 'no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of faith'

  • Pontifical Academy of Sciences: ‘recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis’

  These discoveries invite us to even greater admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for all his works (CCC)
• Stance 7 - 2000

  Catholic Encyclopedia

  to reach Genesis as a scientific account ‘trivialises biblical teachings by placing them in the same genre as scientific discourse’
• Genesis reveals truths about the relationship with God.

  ‘The biblical 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 it tells us what they are’ - Pope Benedict XVI
• ‘Good’ suggests that the creation of the universe was not a mistake, but something made out of love and intention.

  • Science, as the observation of the physical world, can explain the facts, but not the intention.
•  French Roman Catholic Priest Alfred Loisy (1857-1940)

  • Argued that the role of the church was to preach a message of hope, not an absolute unchanging doctrine. New discoveries could be incorporated into the body of religion without conflicting with established dogma, thus allowing the church to reflect the times. 

  His books were condemned by the Vatican, and he was eventually excommunicated in 1908 by Pius X