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b Introduction When on October 22, 1996, Pope John Paul II declared that the theory of evolution was considered today as more than a hypothesis, he was acknowledging the Church’s inclusion in the great evolutionary consensus, a step that followed from an open and creative debate over the issue in the years after Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Humani Generis (1950). The occasion was provided by an address to the members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, gathered in the Vatican for a meeting on the origins and evolution of life. As the pope recalled, “In his Encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points.”1 The “indisputable points” referred mainly, as Pope John Paul II noted in the same address, to the teaching of revelation that the human being has been created in the image and likeness of God, a doctrine qualified by the pope as “pivotal to Christian thought.” A large part of the address focused on this point, drawing a distinction between the scientific theory of evolution on the one hand and its philosophical interpretations on the other. A materialist interpretation denying the spiritual dimensions in the human being would not be compatible with the Christian doctrine. The pope clearly stated that the Church does not oppose the scientific theory of evolution, which is now supported by varied and independent proofs coming from diverse branches of the sciences: Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical, new knowledge has led to recognize that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis. 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 favour of this theory.2 $ 2 | negotiating darwin Of course, the 1996 address should not be considered as an official endorsement of the theory of evolution by the Catholic Church, that is, as saying that a Catholic must accept that theory. The 1996 address and the 1950 encyclical were two big stepping-stones, but they were not the only interventions of the Vatican authorities regarding evolutionism . Other statements by John Paul II and Pius XII could be added along the same lines. In fact, a quite peaceful accord had already been achieved by the 1930s. In 1931 Ernest Messenger published a long reliable account of the subject , whose main doctrinal point centered on the evolution of the human being.3 According to Messenger, no opposition existed between Christianity and the scienti fic theory of evolution, although the Vatican’s contribution to the debate had not reached the status of authoritative doctrine. Of course, Messenger could quote only from available documents, which at the time were very scarce indeed. A much fuller review is now possible, thanks to the opening of the archives of the Holy Office in Rome in 1998. The evidence reveals that the Vatican’s actions with respect to evolution have been quite moderate. For many years, Catholic theology textbooks criticized evolutionism harshly, but they were able to marshal only a few authoritative arguments . Although it was known that Rome had intervened on some occasions, the exact picture was enveloped in darkness. The limited available data could not even be found in public documents. They almost always originated in a journal published by the Jesuits in Rome, La Civiltà Cattolica, which, without being an official publication of the Vatican, has always had a special relationship with the Holy See. When the Vatican opened the Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which contains the archives of the old Congregation of the Holy Office and the Congregation of the Index, it became possible to gain access to information that, until that moment, had been rigorously guarded. Since 1999, we have worked in these archives with the objective of studying in detail the conduct of the Vatican authorities with respect to evolutionism in the second half of the nineteenth century, when the theory of evolution came to prominence. At some future date, when more recent documentation becomes available for consultation , it will be possible to continue the story. Although we strive...

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