{"id":6556,"date":"2006-08-11T11:20:25","date_gmt":"2006-08-11T11:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/confusion-and-clarity.html"},"modified":"2006-08-11T11:20:25","modified_gmt":"2006-08-11T11:20:25","slug":"confusion-and-clarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/confusion-and-clarity.html","title":{"rendered":"Confusion and Clarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Magister on Benedict’s seminar session – his annual reunion with some of his former students, centered on a specific topic. Last year was Islam, this year is Creation and evolution:<\/a><\/p>\n

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All those who are expected to attend Benedict XVI\u2019s private seminar with his former theology students at Castel Gandolfo in early September will come with the necessary documents tucked away in their briefcases. <\/p>\n

Among the papers, an article published by \u201cL\u2019Osservatore Romano\u201d on January 16, 2006, stands out. It is signed Fiorenzo Facchini, who is both priest and scientist, and teaches anthropology at the University of Bologna. He has written extensively on the question of evolution. <\/p>\n

The importance of this article \u2013 which appears in its entirety below \u2013 is confirmed in the latest issue of \u201cLa Civilt\u00e0 Cattolica\u201d, a Jesuit journal published in Rome under the control and with the authorization of Vatican authorities. <\/p>\n

In the August 5-19 issue of \u201cLa Civilt\u00e0 Cattolica\u201d, Jesuit Giuseppe De Rosa reserves ten pages to evolution and its workings, from Lamarck and Darwin up to today. He signs off his piece with a reference to Facchini\u2019s \u201cL\u2019Osservatore Romano\u201d article which he considers the most up-to-date synthesis of the position of the Catholic Church in the matter. <\/p>\n

In his article, Father De Rosa sums up where the scientific controversy now stands point. He writes: <\/p>\n

\u201cA clear distinction must be made between what evolution is and what theories try to say about it. While it is certainly true that phenomenon itself is real, theories about it must be experimentally verified before they can be considered scientifically valid. So far this has not happened. And for this reason, the last word on evolution has not been said. Ahead of us therefore there is much work to do before we can fully understand the mechanisms of the evolutionary process.\u201d <\/p>\n

In Father De Rosa\u2019s opinion, not only do we need to look at the issue from the point of view of science, but we must also face its philosophical and theological implications, and they \u201cmust be dealt with separately.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magister on Benedict’s seminar session – his annual reunion with some of his former students, centered on a specific topic. Last year was Islam, this year is Creation and evolution: All those who are expected to attend Benedict XVI\u2019s private seminar with his former theology students at Castel Gandolfo in early September will come with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nConfusion and Clarity - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/08\/confusion-and-clarity.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Confusion and Clarity - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Magister on Benedict’s seminar session – his annual reunion with some of his former students, centered on a specific topic. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}