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iences pope john paul ii updated the church s position to accept evolution of the human body in his encyclical humani generis 1950 my predecessor pius xii has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points today more than a half century after the appearance of that encyclical some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than a hypothesis in fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines the convergence in the results of these independent studies which was neither planned nor sought constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory 49 in the same address pope john paul ii rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human soul theories of evolution which because of the philosophies which inspire them regard the spirit either as emerging from the forces of living matter or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter are incompatible with the truth about man pope benedict xvi edit statements by cardinal christoph schönborn a close colleague of benedict xvi especially a piece in the new york times on july 7 2005 50 appeared to support intelligent design giving rise to speculation about a new direction in the church s stance on the compatibility between evolution and catholic doctrine many of schönborn s complaints about darwinian evolution echoed pronouncements originating from the discovery institute an interdenominational christian think tank 51 52 however cardinal schönborn s book chance or purpose 2007 originally in german accepted with certain qualifications the scientific theory of evolution but attacked evolutionism as an ideology which he said sought to displace religious teaching over a wide range of issues 53 nonetheless in the mid 1980s prefect of the sacred congregation of the doctrine of the faith joseph ratzinger wrote a defense of the doctrine of creation against catholics who stressed the sufficiency of selection and mutation 54 humans ratzinger writes are not the products of chance and error 54 and the universe is not the product of darkness and unreason it comes from intelligence freedom and from the beauty that is identical with love 54 the church has deferred to scientists on matters such as the age of the earth and the authenticity of the fossil record papal pronouncements along with commentaries by cardinals have accepted the findings of scientists on the gradual appearance of life in fact the international theological commission in a july 2004 statement endorsed by cardinal ratzinger then president of the commission and head of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith includes this paragraph according to the widely accepted scientific account the universe erupted 15 billion years ago in an explosion called the big bang and has been expanding and cooling ever since later there gradually emerged the conditions necessary for the formation of atoms still later the condensation of galaxies and stars and about 10 billion years later the formation of planets in our own solar system and on earth formed about 4 5 billion years ago the conditions have been favorable to the emergence of life while there is little consensus among scientists about how the origin of this first microscopic life is to be explained there is general agreement among them that the first organism dwelt on this planet about 3 5 4 billion years ago since it has been demonstrated that all living organisms on earth are genetically related it is virtually certain that all living organisms have descended from this first organism converging evidence from many studies in the physical and biological sciences furnishes mounting support for some theory of evolution to account for the development and diversification of life on earth while controversy continues over the pace and mechanisms of evolution 4 the church s stance is that any such gradual appearance must have been guided in some way by god but the church has thus far declined to define in what way that may be commentators tend to interpret the church s position in the way most favorable to their own arguments the itc statement includes these paragraphs on evolution the providence of god and intelligent design in freely willing to create and conserve the universe god wills to activate and to sustain in act all those secondary causes whose activity contributes to the unfolding of the natural order which he intends to produce through the activity of natural causes god causes to arise those conditions required for the emergence and support of living organisms and furthermore for their reproduction and differentiation although there is scientific debate about the degree of purposiveness or design operative and empirically observable in these developments they have de facto favored the emergence and flourishing of life catholic theologians can see in such reasoning support for the affirmation entailed by faith in divine creation and divine providence in the providential design of creation the triune god intended not only to make a place for human beings in the universe but also and ultimately to make room for them in his own trinitarian life furthermore operating as real though secondary causes human beings contribute to the reshaping and transformation of the universe a growing body of scientific critics of neo darwinism point to evidence of design e g biological structures that exhibit specified complexity that in their view cannot be explained in terms of a purely contingent process and that neo darwinians have ignored or misinterpreted the nub of this currently lively disagreement involves scientific observation and generalization concerning whether the available data support inferences of design or chance and cannot be settled by theology but it is important to note that according to the catholic understanding of divine causality true contingency in the created order is not incompatible with a purposeful divine providence divine causality and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree thus even the outcome of a truly contingent natural process can nonetheless fall within god s providential plan for creation 4 in addition while he was the vatican s chief astronomer fr george coyne issued a statement on 18 november 2005 saying that intelligent design isn t science even though it pretends to be if you want to teach it in schools intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught not science cardinal paul poupard added that the faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity he also warned of the permanent lesson we have learned from the galileo affair and that we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism fiorenzo facchini professor of evolutionary biology at the university of bologna called intelligent design unscientific and wrote in the january 16 17 2006 edition l osservatore romano but it is not correct from a methodological point of view to stray from the field of science while pretending to do science it only creates confusion between the scientific plane and those that are philosophical or religious kenneth r miller is another prominent catholic scientist widely known for opposing young earth creationism and intelligent design he writes concerning emeritus pope benedict xvi that the holy father s concerns are not with evolution per se but with how evolution is to be understood in our modern world biological evolution fits neatly into a traditional catholic understanding of how contingent natural processes can be seen as part of god s plan a careful reading suggests that the new pope will give quarter neither to the enemies of spirituality nor the enemies of evolutionary science and that s exactly as it should be 55 in a commentary on genesis authored as cardinal ratzinger titled in the beginning benedict xvi spoke of the inner unity of creation and evolution and of faith and reason and that these two realms of knowledge are complementary not contradictory we cannot say creation or evolution inasmuch as these two things respond to two different realities the story of the dust of the earth and the breath of god which we just heard does not in fact explain how human persons come to be but rather what they are it explains their inmost origin and casts light on the project that they are and vice versa the theory of evolution seeks to understand and describe biological developments but in so doing it cannot explain where the project of human persons comes from nor their inner origin nor their particular nature to that extent we are faced here with two complementary rather than mutually exclusive realities cardinal ratzinger in the beginning a catholic understanding of the story of creation and the fall eerdmans 1995 p 50 in a book released in 2008 his comments prior to becoming pope were recorded as the clay became man at the moment in which a being for the first time was capable of forming however dimly the thought of god the first thou that however stammeringly was said by human lips to god marks the moment in which the spirit arose in the world here the rubicon of anthropogenesis was crossed for it is not the use of weapons or fire not new methods of cruelty or of useful activity that constitute man but rather his ability to be immediately in relation to god this holds fast to the doctrine of the special creation of man herein lies the reason why the moment of anthropogenesis cannot possibly be determined by paleontology anthropogenesis is the rise of the spirit which cannot be excavated with a shovel the theory of evolution does not invalidate the faith nor does it corroborate it but it does challenge the faith to understand itself more profoundly and thus to help man to understand himself and to become increasingly what he is the being who is supposed to say thou to god in eternity joseph ratzinger 56 on september 2 3 2006 at castel gandolfo pope benedict xvi conducted a seminar examining the theory of evolution and its impact on catholicism s teaching of creation the seminar is the latest edition of the annual schülerkreis or student circle a meeting benedict has held with his former ph d students since the 1970s 57 58 the essays presented by his former students including natural scientists and theologians were published in 2007 under the title creation and evolution in german schöpfung und evolution in pope benedict s own contribution he states that the question is not to either make a decision for a creationism that fundamentally excludes science or for an evolutionary theory that covers over its own gaps and does not want to see the questions that reach beyond the methodological possibilities of natural science and that i find it important to underline that the theory of evolution implies questions that must be assigned to philosophy and which themselves lead beyond the realms of science in july 2007 at a meeting with clergy pope benedict xvi noted that the conflict between creationism and evolution as a finding of science is absurd 59 currently i see in germany but also in the united states a somewhat fierce debate raging between so called creationism and evolutionism presented as though they were mutually exclusive alternatives those who believe in the creator would not be able to conceive of evolution and those who instead support evolution would have to exclude god this antithesis is absurd because on the one hand there are so many scientific proofs in favour of evolution which appears to be a reality we can see and which enriches our knowledge of life and being as such but on the other the doctrine of evolution does not answer every query especially the great philosophical question where does everything come from and how did everything start which ultimately led to man i believe this is of the utmost importance in commenting on statements by his predecessor he writes it is also true that the theory of evolution is not a complete scientifically proven theory though commenting that experiments in a controlled environment were limited as we cannot haul 10 000 generations into the laboratory he does not endorse young earth creationism or intelligent design he defends theistic evolution the reconciliation between science and religion already held by catholics in discussing evolution he writes that the process itself is rational despite the mistakes and confusion as it goes through a narrow corridor choosing a few positive mutations and using low probability this inevitably leads to a question that goes beyond science where did this rationality come from to which he answers that it comes from the creative reason of god 60 61 62 the 150th anniversary of the publication of the origin of species saw two major conferences on evolution in rome a five day plenary session of the pontifical academy of sciences in october november 2008 on scientific insights into the evolution of the universe and of life 63 and another five day conference on biological evolution facts and theories held in march 2009 at the pontifical gregorian university 64 these meetings generally confirmed the lack of conflict between evolutionary theory and catholic theology and the rejection of intelligent design by catholic scholars 65 on the evening of his death on december 31 2022 the holy see published the spiritual testament of benedict xvi which was written on august 29 2006 in regards to natural sciences he wrote 66 what i said earlier of my compatriots i now say to all who were entrusted to my service in the church stand firm in the faith do not be confused often it seems as if science on the one hand the natural sciences on the other historical research especially the exegesis of the holy scriptures has irrefutable insights to offer that are contrary to the catholic faith i have witnessed from times long past the changes in natural science and have seen how apparent certainties against the faith vanished proving themselves not to be science but philosophical interpretations only apparently belonging to science just as moreover it is in dialogue with the natural sciences that faith has learned to understand the limits of the scope of its affirmations and thus its own specificity pope francis edit on october 27 2014 pope francis issued a statement at the pontifical academy of sciences that evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation warning against thinking of god s act of creation as god being a magician with a magic wand able to do everything 67 68 69 70 the pope also expressed 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