Cardinal Schonborn on Evolution

Thanks to Rob for blogging the link to Cardinal Schonborn's essay on Darwinism.  According to the Times, the Cardinal's essay "redefines" the Church's view on evolution by insisting that "[e]volution 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."  (Here is the Cardinal's essay).  Schonborn emphasizes this, from Pope Benedict XVI:  "We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary."

Although the Times portrays this essay as representing a significant change, or retreat, my own impression is that the Cardinal's statements were fairly unremarkable.  As Ann Althouse puts it, "[i]t's front-page news, apparently, that the theory of evolution as accepted by the Catholic Church actually envisions a role for God."  If I were more cynical, I'd say the Times was spinning the Cardinal's statement in the service of the Times' own view of the Church.

Dr. Kenneth Miller, author of "Finding Darwin's God," is featured prominently in the Times' story:

"Unguided," "unplanned," "random" and "natural" are all adjectives that biologists might apply to the process of evolution, said Dr. Kenneth R. Miller, a professor of biology at Brown and a Catholic. But even so, he said, evolution "can fall within God's providential plan." He added: "Science cannot rule it out. Science cannot speak on this."

Rick