Pope backing away from evolution?

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A UK paper is reporting that the Pope is moving away from evolution. The article claims that he is "aligning his church more closely with the theory of 'intelligent design'" but I would take that with a grain of salt. But what they may be referring to is an interesting incident when Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria (who is, rumor has it, close to Benedict) wrote an article for the New York Times supporting intelligent design. The director of the Vatican Observatory, Fr. George Coyne, reacted fiercely to this, and was subsequently replaced without explanation, and furthermore without the laudatory comments that would be expected of a man in a position like that as long as he was. (Some sources claim that Coyne, who has cancer, asked to be replaced.)

This is worth keeping an eye on. The Pope, in his inaugural sermon, did say "We are not the accidental product, without meaning, of evolution." Of course, traditionally, the church has not opposed evolution per se, merely the dialectical materialism version of it, which is precisely what Benedict's comment addresses.

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