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September 17, 2008 10:29 PM
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican says the theory of evolution was compatible with the Bible but planned no posthumous apology to Charles Darwin for the cold reception it gave him 150 years ago.
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister, was speaking at the announcement of a Rome conference of scientists, theologians and philosophers to be held next March marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Christian churches were long hostile to Darwin because his theory conflicted with the literal biblical account of creation.
Earlier this week a leading Anglican churchman, Rev
Malcolm Brown, said the Church of England owed Darwin an
apology for the way his ideas were received by Anglicans in
Britain.
Pope Pius XII described evolution as a valid scientific
approach to the development of humans in 1950 and Pope John
Paul reiterated that in 1996. But Ravasi said the Vatican had
no intention of apologising for earlier negative views.
"Maybe we should abandon the idea of issuing apologies as
if history was a court eternally in session," he said, adding
that Darwin's theories were "never condemned by the Catholic
Church nor was his book ever banned".
Creationism is the belief that God created the world in six
days as described in the Bible. The Catholic Church does not
read the Genesis account of creation literally, saying it is an
allegory for the way God created the world.
Some other Christians, mostly conservative Protestants in
the United States, read Genesis literally and object to
evolution being taught in biology class in public high schools.
Sarah Palin, the Republican candidate for the US vice
presidency, said in 2006 that she supported teaching both
creationism and evolution in schools but has subsequently said
creationism does not have to be part of curriculum.
THEISTIC EVOLUTION
The Catholic Church teaches "theistic evolution," a stand
that accepts evolution as a scientific theory and sees no
reason why God could not have used a natural evolutionary
process in the forming of the human species.
It objects to using evolution as the basis for an atheist
philosophy that denies God's existence or any divine role in
creation. It also objects to using Genesis as a scientific
text.
As Ravasi put it, creationism belongs to the "strictly
theological sphere" and could not be used "ideologically in
science."
Professor Philip Sloan of Notre Dame University, which is
jointly holding next year's conference with Rome's Pontifical
Gregorian University, said the gathering would be an important
contribution to explaining the Catholic stand on evolution.
"In the United States, and now elsewhere, we have an
ongoing public debate over evolution that has social, political
and religious dimensions," he said.
"Most of this debate has been taking place without a strong
Catholic theological presence, and the discussion has suffered
accordingly," he said.
Pope Benedict discussed these issues with his former
doctoral students at their annual meeting in 2006. In a speech
in Paris last week, he spoke out against biblical literalism.
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