On 6/13/06, Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
> @ I ran across the article below while doing some research. I'm sure
> you're familiar with the RCC's basic position on this subject, but I'm
> posting this for the sake of others who may not be familiar with it - it's
> short and sweet.
>
> Concerning human evolution, the Church has a more definite teaching. It
> allows for the possibility that man's body developed from previous
> biological forms, under God's guidance, but it insists on the special
> creation of his soul.
The OPC charged and indefinitely suspended from office Terry Gray when
he tried to make the distinction above.
http://www.asa3.org/archive/evolution/199606/0118.html
> It is equally impermissible to dismiss the story of Adam and Eve and the
> fall (Gen. 2–3) as a fiction. A question often raised in this context is
> whether the human race descended from an original pair of two human beings
> (a teaching known as monogenism) or a pool of early human couples (a
> teaching known as polygenism).
>
> In this regard, Pope Pius XII stated: "When, however, there is question of
> another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church
> by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion
> which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men
> who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from
> the first parents of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first
> parents. Now, it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled
> that which the sources of revealed truth and the documents of the teaching
> authority of the Church proposed with regard to original sin which proceeds
> from a sin actually committed by an individual Adam in which through
> generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own" (Humani
> Generis 37).
It is not clear in Catholic dogma whether polygenism truly denies
Original Sin and thus out of bounds. Note that in The Christian Faith
in the Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church (1996 edition), on
Humani Generis the authors / editors Fr. Neuner and Dupuis, S.J.
state:
"In the context of other errors, Pius XII treats two questions
regarding the origin of the human person. Firstly, the human being's
origin through evolution from other living beings: while formerly
evolution was rejected as irreconcilable with the biblical account of
creation (which was interpreted in too literal a sense), and as
implying a materialistic conception of the human being, the question
is now left open to scholarly investigation, provided that the
creation of the soul by God is maintained. Secondly, monogenism or
polygenism, i.e. the question whether the human race must be conceived
as descending from a single couple or can be considered to originate
from several couples: polygenism is rejected because 'it does not
appear' [or 'it is not at all apparent'] to be reconcilable with the
doctrine of original sin inherited by all from Adam. Recent theology,
however, is seeking explanations of original sin under the supposition
of polygenism, and so tries to remove the reason for its rejection."
(J. Neuner, J. Dupuis, The Christian Faith [1996], page 169, online
quote source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_and_the_Roman_Catholic_Church)
That being said there is still a problem with Tridentine teaching on
Original Sin (Session V, Canons 1-4) which Pope Pius XII footnoted in
Humani Generis, specifically:
"For in virtue of this rule of faith handed down from the apostles,
even infants who could not as yet commit any sin of themselves, are
for this reason truly baptized for the remission of sins, in order
that in them what they contracted by **generation** may be washed away
by regeneration." [emphasis mine]
Like you, Janice, I am not Roman Catholic and I would appreciate any
Catholics correcting me if I have misrepresented their position.
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Received on Tue Jun 13 11:33:39 2006
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