Matt Donnelly, "A cardinal’s climb-down" (2005)

A cardinal’s climb-down

In a blow to Catholics supportive of intelligent design theory, Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn has qualified his remarks concerning Darwinian evolution. As we reported extensively in The Daily Dose, Schoenborn’s essay in The New York Times this past summer led some Vatican watchers to expect that Pope Benedict XVI would come out in favor of intelligent design theory. We also reported that the cardinal’s views caused considerable anxiety among many Catholic scientists, including the head of the Vatican Observatory, George Coyne.

Tom Heneghan, religion editor for Reuters, tells the story of Schoenborn’s climb-down:

A senior Roman Catholic cardinal seen as a champion of "intelligent design" against Darwin's explanation of life has described the theory of evolution as "one of the very great works of intellectual history."

Vienna Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn said he could believe both in divine creation and in evolution because one was a question of religion and the other of science, two realms that complimented rather than contradicted each other.

Schoenborn's view, presented in a lecture published by his office on Tuesday, tempered earlier statements that seemed to ally the Church with United States conservatives campaigning against the teaching of evolution in public schools.

… "Without a doubt, Darwin pulled off quite a feat with his main work and it remains one of the very great works of intellectual history," Schoenborn declared in a lecture in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna on Sunday.

"I see no problem combining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, under one condition — that the limits of a scientific theory are respected," he said.

Meanwhile The Times newspaper in Great Britain notes the Vatican has reaffirmed that the Bible is not a science textbook:

The hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

The Catholic bishops of England, Wales and Scotland are warning their five million worshippers, as well as any others drawn to the study of scripture, that they should not expect “total accuracy” from the Bible.

“We should not expect to find in Scripture full scientific accuracy or complete historical precision,” they say in The Gift of Scripture.

Science & Theology News will feature an extensive discussion of intelligent design in our November issue. New subscribers can read this issue and the next three for free, without further obligation.

Elsewhere in cyberspace Science & Spirit has an essay arguing that Catholics and evolutionists should bury the hatchet once and for all.