Pope Francis Views on Evolution: No Major Shift In Catholic Church Doctrine
Pope Francis did not signal a major shift in the Catholic church's doctrine when he declared that evolution and the Big Bang theory were not contradictory to the divine act of creation
According to Time Magazine, which analyzed the statements made by the Pope in his address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Monday, the pontiff simply reiterated already well-established Catholic doctrine with his comments.
In his statement, Pope Francis said, "Creation as it is explained in Genesis, puts us at risk of imagining God as a magician, but that is not so."
He affirmed that "God is the Creator who brought everything to life."
His statement about evolution specifically noted that "evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation" as the theory requires the initial creation of beings that are capable of evolving.
Referring to the Big Bang theory, Pope Francis noted that "the theory imagines the origin of the world, and is not contradictory to the divine act of creating, but rather requires it."
His comments have since then been interpreted as a major shift in the Catholic's church's doctrine.
But Time said Pope Francis merely reaffirmed what various popes have said over the years. The idea behind Pope Francis' statement was first stated by Pope Pius XII, who created "Humani Generis" in 1950, Time said.
At that time, Pope Pius XII stated that "the soul is created by God, but the physical body could come from preexisting matter."
This line of thinking was followed by Pope John Paul II who, during his address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, noted that "evolution was more than just another hypothesis about the origins of mankind."
However, many think that Pope Francis' predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI believed in God's intelligent design for mankind although he never made any statements about it. USA Today noted that Benedict's close associate, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, wrote an article in 2005 which stated that "evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but it is not an unguided, unplanned process."
With there being no apparent shift in the Catholic Church's thinking, Time believed that the media have blown Pope Francis' statements out of proportion.
