From this week's "The Word From Rome" column by John Allen: There's a growing debate at senior levels of the Catholic Church about what to make of the theory of evolution, and it took a new twist this week with the publication of an article in L'Osservatore Romano by Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology of the University of ( Read more... )

This brief article seems to have the virtues of brevity and clarity. Would that it might be picked up by secular newspapers in the U.S..Intelligent design not science, says Vatican newspaper article
By John Thavis ( Read more... )

It's a shame that the reporting on the Intelligent Design court decision that was just handed down--and the case itself, based in the move by Dover, Pennsylvania's school board to set up ID as an alternative to "evolution"--has muddied the waters of the ID conversation by jamming it into the old, tired and misleading category of "science versus ( Read more... )

From my spy in Rome, John Allen, Jr., in his The Word From Rome column, we have this tidbit on the currently-hot topic of "science and religion," which at long last seems to be increasingly poised, I think, to overcome a two-centuries-long stream of nonsense. In the future, look increasingly to see the scientific community and the Christian ( Read more... )

In the interest of being thorough, I include the following articles as follow-up to previously-followed topics:

1) From the pages of Der Spiegel there is a small retrospective of German media outlets and their judgment of Benedict XVI at World Youth Day in Cologne. There is more representation there of the kind of reduce-everything-to-politics ( Read more... )

I see that John and Luke are at it again in these pages: sorry guys, I'm hosting my Dad and we're off to my sister's tomorrow, and I don't have time to jump in or even respond at this moment. And if I were really being good about my exams, not until November ( Read more... )

John Allen in his The Word From Rome column this week, follows up his previous story on Cardincal Schönborn's essay on evolution by speaking to the Cardinal himself for some follow-up:Two weeks ago, I reported on reaction to a July 7 op/ed piece in The New York Times by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, in which the cardinal argued that ( Read more... )

This material is taken from John Allen's column and additions to it that he posted and that I referenced last week. I wanted to toss all this in my journal for future reference. I include the following three items:1) Allen's full interview with Professor Nicola Cabibbo, president for the past 12 years of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. A 78- ( Read more... )

Some of you couldn't help but noticing a pair of recent "events" in the newspapers and commenting upon them. Both Cardinal Schönborn's column in The New York Times on teaching philosophical conclusions mixed in with the scientific data of biological and physical evolution, and the earth-shattering report that Cardinal Ratzinger a few years ago ( Read more... )

The following was sent to me by aristotle in response to something posted over in kesil's journal on the matter in my previous entry:


( Read more... )