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Summary
- Catholics may accept that the human body evolved from earlier life, because Pius XII allowed research and discussion of it in Humani Generis (1950), provided they hold that “souls are immediately created by God.”
- In 1996 John Paul II said that “new knowledge leads us to recognise the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis,” while rejecting theories that make the mind a product of matter, and later Benedict XVI called the opposition of creation and evolution “absurd” and Francis said that “evolution presupposes the creation of beings who evolve.”
- The Catechism teaches that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God” (366) and that the fall in Genesis 3, told in “figurative language,” affirms “a primeval event” committed by “our first parents” (390).
- Pius XII said Catholics “cannot embrace” polygenism because it was “in no way apparent” how it fits original sin, but the Church has not ruled again since 1950, and the Society of Catholic Scientists calls the question “an unresolved issue.”
- The Catechism presents the six days of Genesis “symbolically” (337) and teaches that the world is not the product “of blind fate or chance” (295).
- In Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 66% of American Catholics said humans and other living things have evolved over time.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- The Holy Bible, King James Version: Genesis 1:27 and 2:7, via BibleGateway.
- Pope Pius XII, Humani Generis, encyclical, 12 August 1950, paragraphs 5, 36–38, vatican.va.
- Pope John Paul II, Message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 22 October 1996: English translation on the Pontifical Academy of Sciences site; French text on vatican.va.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 159, vatican.va; paragraphs 283–284, 289 and 295, vatican.va; paragraph 337, vatican.va; paragraphs 362–366 and 375, vatican.va; paragraphs 390 and 404–406, vatican.va.
- International Theological Commission, Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God, 2004, paragraphs 63, 69–70, vatican.va; and the Commission’s profile, vatican.va.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Homily at the Mass for the beginning of the Petrine ministry, 24 April 2005, vatican.va.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Meeting with the clergy of the Dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso, Auronzo di Cadore, 24 July 2007, vatican.va.
- Pope Francis, Address to the Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 27 October 2014, vatican.va.
- Pope Francis, Laudato si’, encyclical, 24 May 2015, paragraph 81, vatican.va.
- Pope Leo XIV, Address to members of the Board of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, 11 May 2026, vatican.va.
- Society of Catholic Scientists, “Q6: How do ‘Adam and Eve’ fit in with evolution and the science of human origins?”, Common Questions, catholicscientists.org.
- Catholic Answers, “Adam, Eve, and Evolution”, tract, catholic.com.
- Pew Research Center, “The Evolution of Pew Research Center’s Survey Questions About the Origins and Development of Life on Earth”, 6 February 2019 (2014 Religious Landscape Study data), pewresearch.org.
- Answers in Genesis, “Statement of Faith”, answersingenesis.org.
- BioLogos, “What is Evolutionary Creation?”, last updated 6 February 2024, biologos.org.
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