In a statement that's sure to aggravate the Intelligent Design crowd, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi , head of the Pontifical Council for Culture said, (from asianews.it)There is no "a priori incompatibility" between the theory of evolution, biblical teaching, and theology, but there is a need to "clarify", 150 years after its publication, the work of Charles Darwin, which today "is too often discussed more in an ideological than in a scientific context", generating confusion to the point of frontal opposition between "evolutionism" and "creationism", present above all in the United States.
For too many years, the Catholic Church has been lumped together with certain Protestant churches and wrongly accused of being against science.
The Catholic Church has never condemned evolution- has never banned Darwin's books- and popes dating back to Pius XII have stated that evolution does not contradict the Faith.
Other churches (mostly conservative Protestants in the United States) read Genesis literally and object to evolution being taught in public schools, preferring, instead, to teach Creationism.Creationism is the belief that God created the world in six days as described in Genesis. The Catholic Church does not read the Genesis account of creation literally, saying the story is allegorical.The book tells why God created the universe.....not how.
In March 3-7, 2009, the Vatican will hold an international conference in Rome named "Biological Evolution: Facts and Theories. A Critical Appraisal 150 years after ‘The Origin of Species' ".
There will be no representatives of the "intelligent design" movement at the conference.
Sources:
asianews.it
Catholic News Agency
reuters
poligazette
ansa.it
theistic evolution
