By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN, November 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an uncanny coincidence today, while some mainstream media sources claimed the Vatican was attacking belief in creation in favour of Darwinian evolution, Pope Benedict spoke on creation.Â
The Times, in a story picked up in The Australian and other news sources ‘reports’ today that “The Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.” (see the story here: https://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html )Â
However, what actually took place was that Cardinal Paul Poupard, who heads the Pontifical Council for Culture, made the comments at a news conference on a Vatican project to help end the “mutual prejudice” in the dialogue between science and theology.
“We know where scientific reason can end up by itself: the atomic bomb and the possibility of cloning human beings are fruit of a reason that wants to free itself from every ethical or religious link,” he said.“But we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism,” he said.“The faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity.”
When asked specifically about Darwin’s theories Poupard, said that what was important was that “the universe wasn’t made by itself, but has a creator.”
In his General Audience today, Pope Benedict spoke to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square telling them “if some people … ‘imagine the universe without guidance of order, as though at the mercy of chaos,’ the sacred writer ‘immediately enlightened our minds with the name of God at the beginning of the story: In the beginning God created. … If, then, the world had a beginning and was created, seek out the One Who began it, the One Who is its Creator’.” (see the full remarks in Italian: https://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2005/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20051109_it.html )