The Vatican Celebrates Darwin

It's nice to see that I wasn't the only one celebrating Charles Darwin's birthday last month. On a typical Italian time schedule the Vatican celebrated last week with a scientific conference at the Gregorian University.

Noticeably absent from the discussion (and apparently feeling excluded) were proponents of intelligent design and creationism. Even though some thought, mistakenly, that the Vatican was a place where they would be warmly welcomed:

Organizers of the five-day conference at the Pontifical Gregorian University said Thursday that they barred intelligent design proponents because they wanted an intellectually rigorous conference on science, theology and philosophy to mark the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species."

While there are some Darwinian dissenters present, intelligent design didn't fit the bill, they said.

"We think that it's not a scientific perspective, nor a theological or philosophical one," said the Rev. Marc Leclerc, the conference director and a professor of philosophy of nature at the Gregorian.

One of those attending and commenting on the conference was Cardinal William Levada, an American who holds Pope Benedict's previous post of head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Since Doctrine of the Faith was previously known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition, continuing to hold onto intelligent design could be dangerous. We all know how the Inquisition used to treat those who disagree with them:

Working in mysterious ways

We here in Kentucky are all caught up in the 200th birthday of native son Abraham Lincoln these days. But tomorrow marks the 200th birthday of another world-changing figure, Charles Darwin. And ironically the scripture texts for this week are from the second chapter of Genesis. So tomorrow, on Darwin's birthday, I get to preach God creating Eve out of Adams rib.

Only I'm pretty sure that Eve was an ape with a favorable genetic mutation. In a long line of favorable mutations going back to some primordial biological ooze.

And I'm glad I'm part of a church that takes the reality of reality seriously.

In spite of the reputation the church has gotten over the whole Galileo thing, the Vatican has had an academy of scientists for more than 400 years. And you know who the first president was? More irony. Galileo himself. Current membership includes Stephen Hawking. And past members include Max Planck, the founder of quantum theory; Werner Heisenberg, known for his uncertainty principle; and Erwin Schrödinger, who had a famous cat.

As I said, we take the reality of reality seriously. Because if God is the source of all creation, then understanding creation is going to lead us closer to God. Even when it challenges the way we may look at things.

It took us a while to get over the idea that the earth wasn't the center of God's universe. But eventually we had to accept reality. Evolution didn't take as long. In 1950, less than 100 years after the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, Pope Pius XII opened the door to research and discussion of "the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter" in his encyclical Humani generis.

So as a product of Catholic schools and Catholic thought, I find it incredible that 200 years later, Darwin is still controversial. Or that we're still debating evolution in our legislatures and our school boards. In the 21st century no less. TRUTH has never had anything to fear from truth.

So tomorrow I'll be celebrating Thursday of the 5th Week of Ordinary time. And the birthday of Charles Darwin. And my ancient ancestors the apes. And a God of incredible wonder and creativity and love.