Benedykta XVI wizja relacji ewolucja-stworzenie – regres czy kontynuacja?

Abstract

The Catholic Church has for decades raised in its teachings the issues of evolution and its relation to the creation. The theme creation/evolution was brought up by subsequent popes in their speeches and publications, especially by Pius XII (1950, papal encyclical called Humani generis) and John Paul II (1996, A letter to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences). Benedict XVII, too, did not avoid this interesting theme in his multi-year pontificate. In September 2006, the Holy Father organized a symposium in Castel Gandolfo that was dedicated to this topic. The symposium was chaired by a disciple and, at the same time, a close collaborator of Benedict XVII – the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn. He wrote the Foreword to the publication entitled Creation and Evolution. A Conference with Pope Benedict XVI in Castel Gandolfo which was the fruit of papers presented at the conference and discussions that were held afterwards. Therefore, Benedict XVI’s views on the theory of evolution should not be expressed in simple terms, stating that he is either for or against it. On the one hand, he notices the weak sides to this theory and regards it as insufficient in its scientific justification. On the other hand, he does not identify himself with its fundamentalist criticism. By making his comments on the subject in question, Benedict XVI confirms the standpoint of the Church which views that there is no discrepancy between the Christian doctrine of creation and the data from natural sciences.