Irish Catholicism and Science: From "Godless Colleges" to the Celtic Tiger

3. Catholicism and Science, 1890s–1903

58 3. Catholicism and Science, 1890s–1903 Converging Themes Negative opinions about evolution from a theological perspective would suggest a relationship of conflict between Irish Catholicism and science. However, in this chapter it will be clear that the interaction between scientific and religious thinking was not so one-dimensional. This is certainly true of Irish Catholic culture from the early 1890s to the early years of the twentieth century. In this chapter cognisance is taken of developments indigenous and external to Ireland. Irish Catholic opinions are explored with reference to mainland Europe – with a particular emphasis on Rome and the English-speaking world – especially focusing on Britain. Evolutionary theory continued to be a theme of central importance – but it was not the only concern. Controversy about the Galileo case, Draper’s conflict thesis, and theoretical physics also received attention. At this point it will be evident that discourse about religion and science did not take place in isolation from broader cultural, political and philosophical influences. Irish Catholic responses to evolutionary theory, for example, were conditioned by concerns about the influence of the popular press and the supposed susceptibility of English Protestant culture to irreligious ideas. Furthermore, Irish Catholic responses to evolution were not entirely negative. Evidence will be presented to indicate some degree of acceptance of evolution. There were even speculations about the theological implications of extraterrestrial life. In this chapter, therefore, there is no single theme, no simplistically linear narrative. Rather, a number of converging themes are addressed to elucidate the complexity of Irish Catholic opinions about science. 3. Catholicism and Science, 1890s–1903 59 The Ascendancy of Ultraconservatism In the 1890s the Vatican’s censorious responses to Père Marie Dalmace Leroy’s L’Évolution Restreinte aux Espèces Organiques (Evolution Restricted to Organic Species, 1891) and Fr John A. Zahm’s Evolution and Dogma (1896) strongly indicated theological disapproval in the higher echelons of the Roman Catholic Church towards evolutionary theory, especially concerning human origins. Leroy, a French Dominican, and Zahm, a professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame (USA), argued, like Mivart, that evolution was compatible with Catholic theology . In February 1895 Leroy was summoned to Rome and was persuaded to publish a retraction of his views shortly afterwards in the periodical Le Monde (Paris). Zahm was persuaded to take measures to minimise the circulation of his book. In May 1899 his submission to ecclesiastical authority was made known through the medium of the periodical Gazetta di Malta. The following month it was republished in the journal of the Vatican Jesuits – La Civiltà Cattolica.1 Two Catholic bishops, Geremia Bonomelli (1831–1914) of Cremona (northern Italy) and John Cuthbert Hedley of Newport (England), also found themselves in difficulties for their tolerance of evolutionary theory. Bonomelli gave it some attention in his book Seguiamo la Ragione (‘Let Us Follow Reason’, 1898), but did not condemn it. This was regarded as an unacceptable omission and he was persuaded by ‘friendly, kind and very competent persons’ to make public, through the medium of Lega Lombarda (late October 1898), that evolutionary theory – extended to humans – was ‘not perfectly in conformity with the teaching of the Church’.2 Hedley wrote approvingly of evolution in a review of Zahm’s book in the Dublin Review (October 1998) and was criticised by La Civiltà Cattolica (7 January 1899). He then wrote to the English Catholic periodical The Tablet, conceding that the Mivartian thesis was no longer sustainable (14 January 1899). However, by 1902 Hedley had expressed scepticism about theological objections to Mivart’s thesis in a letter published in England and the Holy See by Rev. Spencer Jones. In April of that year the ever vigilant and highly influential Jesuit authors of La Civiltà Cattolica indicated in their response to Hedley that Leroy and Zahm did their utmost to withdraw their books from circulation because of disapproval from the ‘Supreme Tribunal of the Holy See’.3 The ‘Supreme Tribunal of the Holy See’ indicated the Holy Office.4 60 Irish Catholicism and Science Known today as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this congregation was the highest ranked of the Vatican congregations. It was concerned with a broad range of doctrinal matters and issued directives to other congregations. It could, for example, instruct the Congregation of the Index to add specific published works to its Index of Prohibited Books. The Congregation of the Index was...