The controversy between creationism and evolution has been in the news since Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida and a Roman Catholic, made these remarks in an interview with GQ magazine:

GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?
Marco Rubio: I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.

As a theologian, I can say that it is still considered an open question: Are the 7 days of Creation in the Bible (6 days plus the day of rest), literal or figurative? Most Catholics (including myself) favor the view that the 7 days are figurative. I accept the theory of evolution, in so far as it does not conflict with the Catholic Faith. But is it still tenable, as a pious opinion, to believe that world was created in 7 literal days? Yes, that opinion does not conflict with any definitive teaching of the Magisterium. However, the figurative interpretation has more support.

What have the Popes said on this subject? Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at an assembly whose topic was “Scientific Insight into the Evolution of the Universe and of Life”. He did not reject evolution: “Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II noted that there is no opposition between faith’s understanding of creation and the evidence of the empirical sciences.”

Pope Pius XII had a skeptical view of evolution, objecting to the idea “that evolution, which has not been fully proved even in the domain of natural sciences, explains the origin of all things.” So any part of the theory of evolution that would exclude a role for God in the origin of all things should be rejected. However, this does not disqualify every part of the theory. We are obliged by faith to hold that God chose to create the Universe, to create life on earth, and to create the human race, and that God positively acted to do the same. So the origin of life, and specifically the origin of the human race, cannot be held by the faithful to be the result of mere random chance, nor the function of evolution. God’s guidance and intervention must be admitted.

But in the same document, Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII also wrote: “The magisterium of the Church is not opposed to the theory of evolution being the object of investigation and discussion among experts. Here the theory of evolution is understood as an investigation of the origin of the human body from pre-existing living matter, for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold firmly that souls are created immediately by God…” At some point in the process of evolution, God intervened to begin the human race, which has an immortal soul created directly by God.

After citing the above passage from Humani Generis, Pope John Paul II commented: “It can therefore be said that, from the viewpoint of the doctrine of the faith, there are no difficulties in explaining the origin of man in regard to the body, by means of the theory of evolution. But it must be added that this hypothesis proposes only a probability, not a scientific certainty. However, the doctrine of faith invariably affirms that man’s spiritual soul is created directly by God. According to the hypothesis mentioned, it is possible that the human body, following the order impressed by the Creator on the energies of life, could have been gradually prepared in the forms of antecedent living beings. However, the human soul, on which man’s humanity definitively depends, cannot emerge from matter, since the soul is of a spiritual nature.”

So essentially, if you are Catholic, you may only accept the theory of evolution to a certain extent. The theory of evolution is a partially correct partial explanation for the origin of life, the origin of various species of life, and the origin of humanity.

Related Post: Reconciling Adam and Eve with Evolution

by
Ronald L. Conte Jr.
Roman Catholic theologian and
translator of the Catholic Public Domain Version of the Bible.