Thursday October 24 5:19 PM EDT Internet
VATICAN CITY (Reuter) - Pope John Paul II has lent his support to the theory of evolution, proclaiming it compatible with Christian faith in a step welcomed by scientists but likely to raise howls from the religious right.(1)
The Pope's recognition that evolution is "more than just a theory" came in a written message he sent Wednesday to a meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a body of experts that advises the Roman Catholic Church on scientific issues.
It broke new ground by acknowledging that the theory of the physical evolution of man and other species through natural selection and hereditary adaptation appeared to be valid.
Though the Pope made clear he regarded the human soul as of immediate divine creation,(2) and so not subject to the process, his remarks brought banner headlines in the Italian press.
"Pope says we may descend from monkeys," the conservative newspaper Il Giornale said on its front page. La Repubblica said the Pope had "made peace with Darwin."
The theory of evolution, most notably expounded by 19th century English naturalist Charles Darwin, had until now been viewed by the Catholic Church as serious and worthy of discussion but still an open question.
"It is indeed remarkable that this theory has progressively taken root in the minds of researchers following a series of discoveries made in different spheres of knowledge,"(3) the Pope said.
"The convergence, neither sought nor provoked, of results of studies undertaken independently from each other constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."
The theories of Darwin and other evolutionists about man's origins were for long anathema to theologians, who saw a conflict with the biblical account of creation in the Book of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Most theologians no longer believe that the doctrine that God created the world and made man in his own image and the theory of evolution stand in each other's way. (4)
But fundamentalist Christians who take a literal approach to Genesis, known as "creationists," have recently reopened the controversy, especially in the southern United States.
In Tennessee, where teacher John Scopes was famously fined $100 by a court in 1925 for teaching evolution in his class in what became known as the Monkey Trial, a bill that would have banned teaching evolution as fact was only narrowly voted down in the state legislature earlier this year.
The Vatican's first substantive response to the theories of evolution was contained in an encyclical, Humani Generis, written in 1950 by the Pope Pius XII.
It cited no objection to discussing evolution while cautioning that the theory played into the hands of communists eager to cut God out of the equation.
Pope John Paul II has previously endorsed the 1950 document. He said Wednesday its essential point was that "if the human body has its origin in living material which pre-exists it, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God."
But he also said: "Today, nearly half a century after appearance of the encyclical, fresh knowledge leads to recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis."(5)
The Pope's acknowledgment was welcomed as a significant advance by scientists, even though some said it had come late. (6)
"It will allow many Catholic scientists, who have been engaged for some time in research on human evolution, to continue their work without any censure or difficulty,"(7) said Francesco Barone, a leading Italian scientific philosopher.