I hope you weren't going to creationist websites. They really are notorious for misunderstanding things. ("Misunderstanding" is a polite term for what they do.) The Pope is very well advised on scientific matters.
What I found clearly suggests that the Pope is scientifically naive, and that he would not believe in a theory of evolution which would remove an intelligent designer. He will not believe in a theory that alleges to disprove God.
Not a problem. That has never been a goal, or a consequence, of the theory of evolution. Relax. It's just a theory about biology. The Pope isn't being bamboozled. Check out that Pontifical Academy of Science that I linked yesterday. The Pope has the very best people advising him.
In fact, this is a distinction that Catholic Church wants to make clear after his 1996 statement. The Church warns about misinterpretation of his position.
Certainly. The Pope's statement makes it clear that evolution -- to the extent that he accepts it -- has nothing to do with man's soul. And it has nothing to do with God. That's always been true, and no sane biologist claims otherwise. (But I can't say the same for some creationists, who are looking for a cosmic struggle where none exists.)
Big Bang cosmology, proposed in the thirties by our former President, Father Lemaître, is today confirmed by innumerable results, ranging from cosmic background radiation and its observed fluctuations, which beautifully mirror the birth of galaxies, to the relative abundance of chemical elements in the universe. The development of molecular biology has clarified the mechanisms underlying the evolution of living organisms, and has also provided the basis by which to establish a complete genealogy of life from humble bacteria to the higher organisms.Nice to know the old church sees the beauty of science.