After reading your post again and trying to look at it from your perspective, I see that. Please ignore my earlier question.
I think the Pope is accepting the theory of evolution regarding man's physical nature, and is asserting special creation for man's spiritual nature.
It's my opinion, and I'm not Catholic so I could be way off base here, that the Pope isn't saying either way. When I first (i.e. months ago) read the link you provided I thought the Pope wasn't endorsing evolution. After reading a lot of different opinions on his words I think he's, as I just said, not saying either way.
Past experience with the NCSE has demonstrated an extreme bias on their part, so I tend to read very carefully everything they say. Having said that, I think the link you provided is a good translation. There are others that, IMO, don't hold up to scrutiny.
Some places I've been reading today are here, here and here.
With this I want to be careful - it is not my intent to offend. It is quite possible the Pope being who is is, is also being political. There, I said it. That's been on my mind all day.
You're not offending me. I agree with what I think you're saying -- the Pope is trying to have it both ways. But I think he's done a very good job of it. One thing is clear -- he's not supporting a fundamentalist reading of Genesis, that is, he's not coming out and bashing evolution. The institution he heads ended up looking like fools over the Galileo incident, and they seem determined not to ever let that happen again. The Pope does not want the Church to end up in an intellectual backwater, while the world passes them by. This is entirely admirable.