Catholic Church and Evolution

Catholic Church And Evolution

Since the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, the attitude of the Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has slowly been refined. For about 100 years, there was no authoritative pronouncement on the subject. In the 1950 encyclical Humani generis, Pope Pius XII confirmed that there is no intrinsic conflict between Christianity and the theory of evolution, provided that Christians believe that the individual soul is a direct creation by God and not the product of purely material forces. Today, the Church's unofficial position is an example of theistic evolution, also known as evolutionary creation, stating that faith and scientific findings regarding human evolution are not in conflict, though humans are regarded as a special creation, and that the existence of God is required to explain both monogenism and the spiritual component of human origins. Moreover, the Church teaches that the process of evolution is a planned and purpose-driven natural process, actively guided by God.

Read more about Catholic Church And Evolution:  Early Reaction, Pope Pius IX, Popes Leo XIII and Pius X, Pope Pius XII, Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Today, Catholic Teaching and Evolution, Catholic Schools and Evolution, Unofficial Catholic Organizations

Famous quotes containing the words catholic church, catholic, church and/or evolution:

    “It is time that the Protestant Church, the Church of the Son, should be one again with the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of the Father. It is time that man shall cease, first to live in the flesh, with joy, and then, unsatisfied, to renounce and to mortify the flesh.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    “That is the great end of empires before God, to be Catholic and draw nations into their Catholicism. But our empire is less and less Christian as it grows.”
    —Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)

    “The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
    —Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)

    “The evolution of humans can not only be seen as the grand total of their wars, it is also defined by the evolution of the human mind and the development of the human consciousness.”
    —Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)