That's good to know, but I can't help but point out that it is the positivists who speak on behalf of the Catholic Church and who dominate its clergy and its theological organs. Almost all US Catholic publications, without exception, insist on at least the possibility of both evolution and higher criticism as one of the historic distinctions that separates Catholics from Fundamentalist Protestants. Also, I have not heard of any Third World bishop or theologian making much noise to counteract the prevailing positivism.
As for numbers and ancient creeds, it is significant that the pope is traveling to England for the beatification of Cardinal Newman. To the distress of the Arian bishops of the Catholic Church in EnglandI might add. I use the term Arian because Newman is famous for his history of the Arian movement in the 4th Century. Owing to the support of the Emperor Constantius, the Arians and the semi-Arians in the episcopacy were in command. Yet in the end, the Nicene Creed prevailed and there are many of us who recite it with as much conviction as ever, as Newman himself did, whatever the convictions of the educqted.
I am afraid I don't hold the enthusiasm for Cardinal Newman that most conservative Catholics do. The man was a Biblical minimalist, even going so far as to suggest the Bible contains non-inerrant (perhaps even non-inspired) "obiter dicta." As far as I am concerned, he would feel right at home in today's liberal Catholic universities.
Minimalist? Not even Calvin could meet your standard I think. Asfar as the “possibility” of evolution, One does have to look the natural data, or else adopt a Muslim view of God as a whimsicalist. Anything we can imagine is possible, except that God does not exist.