corrente

Sweet Jesus:

"An influential cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, which has long been regarded as an ally of the theory of evolution, is now suggesting that belief in evolution as accepted by science today may be incompatible with Catholic faith.
The cardinal, Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, a theologian who is close to Pope Benedict XVI, staked out his position in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on Thursday, writing, "Evolution in the sense of common ancestry might be true, but evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense - an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection - is not."

Intelligent design, anyone? Noting that the cardinal is "close" to The Former Inquisitor Now Known As Pope makes me curious as to what TFINKAP may have said to this "ally of the theory of evolution" to make him back down so far. The cardinal himself claims his feelings toward evolution have been "mis-interpreted" for years and this is simply a clarification--which just happens to come on the heels of the installation of a pope so reactionary he makes John Paul seem almost anarchist.

But have no fear, young charges:

"Cardinal Schönborn, who is on the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education, said the office had no plans to issue new guidance to teachers in Catholic schools on evolution. But he said he believed students in Catholic schools, and all schools, should be taught that evolution is just one of many theories."

Whew! Dodged a bullet on that one, eh? Now they can just put evolution on the shelf with the other creation myth specimens and teach it alongside the theory of Genesis, the theory of Shu and Tefnut, the theory of the giant frost ogre Ymir, and the theory of Pele and the fire god.

The Bablylonians have a pretty lengthy one--better set aside a separate class for that.

UPDATE: I see that the Op-Ed page of the NYTimes sees it my way, too.