Schönborn on evolution

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, has written an op-ed piece for the New York Times clarifying the Church’s position on evolution. Well, he was really clarifying what the previous pope, John Paul, and the new pontiff had to say about intelligent design vs. Darwinian evolution. He claims that the words of the two popes have been wrongly interpreted in a way that makes the Church seem comfortable with Darwin’s theory.

“Ever since 1996, when Pope John Paul II said that evolution (a term he did not define) was ‘more than just a hypothesis,’ defenders of neo-Darwinian dogma have often invoked the supposed acceptance - or at least acquiescence - of the Roman Catholic Church when they defend their theory as somehow compatible with Christian faith,” Schönborn writes.

A point of his which struck me is that a defense of intelligent design is really a defense of the dignity of human nature and human intelligence which didn’t come about through a random series of accidents. But rather, they are “the result of the thought of God.”

Read Schönborn’s words here.