A Textual Analysis of John Paul II’s Teaching on Evolution

Abstract

At one of the libraries I visited, The Acts of the Holy See covering the period of 20 century occupy five shelves. Out of these five, two shelves (about 40%) belong to the pontificate of John Paul II alone. It’s noticeable, therefore, that the Vatican under John Paul II produced—on average—twice as many ecclesiastical teachings per year than it did under any other 20 century pope. When it comes to John Paul II’s teaching on evolution, however, all his statements, scattered in different documents, can be fitted on one page of typescript. This is really not much compared to his voluminous teachings on marriage, family, freedom, economy, interreligious dialogue and various other topics. Despite this fact, today’s Catholic theologians and public speakers willingly refer to John Paul II to present the current state of the Church doctrine regarding the theory of evolution. For example, they typically quote the Address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences delivered by John Paul II in 1996. What is often forgotten, however, is that the Address is quite a low-ranking document