February 7, 1997 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) - Some Roman Catholic writers are claiming the pope was misunderstood in October when the press reported that in a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences he had given support to evolution. (The Fundamental Baptist News Service published a report on this on October 24, entitled "The Pope Supports Evolution.")

For example, Philip Lawler, editor of the Catholic World Report, writes: "On October 23, newspaper headlines all around the world reported that, in a statement to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope John Paul II had announced that Darwin's theory of evolution is 'more than a hypothesis.' But the Holy Father said no such thing. ... In each case, an accurate translation of the Pope's original statement shows that he did not intend to indicate acceptance of evolutionary theory. On the contrary, he meant to say that there is no one single, authoritative theory of evolution."

I have the full text of the Pope's speech as given in the Oct. 30, 1996, English-language edition of L'Osservatore Romano. This is the official newspaper published by the Vatican. The pope definitely left the door open for evolution. He stated: "It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge. The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory."

John Paul II also quoted Pope Pius XII as saying evolution has scientific support. John Paul II's main point was that though evolution has much scientific confirmation, scientific theories of evolution cannot tell us about the spiritual nature of man. He quoted Pius XII as saying: "If the human body take its origin from pre-existent living matter, the spiritual soul is immediately created by God." In other words, the popes do not dispute the theories of evolution pertaining to the physical aspect of man, but they claim that God created man's spirit.

All of this is nonsense, of course. ALL of the theories of evolution are strictly contrary to the Bible's account of creation. The pope is the blind leading the blind.

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