Looks like the Vatican is getting out in front of the obvious failure of literal creationism and ID to produce real evidence.
It's too often assumed that because a Cardinal speaks that, ah, this is the opinion of Rome as a whole. Maddeningly though sometimes it seems, it doesn't always work that way. The Pope, and other Cardinals, can disagree with particular Cardinals on things for decades before they actually say something public about it. It's not at all clear that Pope Benedict, in particular, would be totally sympathetic. If I ran Rome there would be flash polls and none of these guessing games, but I don't run it, so....