July 16, 2005
Christoph Cardinal Schonborn recently could be read in an op-ed article in the New York Times clarifying the Church’s stance on Neo-Darwinism. He spoke of how the Church has always defended the truths given us by Jesus, “but in the modern era, the Catholic Church is in the odd position of standing in firm defense of reason as well.” This is a response to some “scientific” hypotheses invented to explain away any true “explanation of the world as it appears to us”.
I could not help but see in this scientific movement a symptom of a current malady that afflicts our culture: there is a disconnect from where we are from, and thus from who we really are. This occurs on multiple levels. It is seen in a youth’s rejection of his Christian heritage, to a learned scientist embracing ever more preposterous theories, for it may lead to admitting the existence of a Creator; in an entire people’s loss of their Christian identity in a generation, to natural reason even becoming an enemy to scientific or academic inquiry.
The answer to things is often sought by the very people who are in the midst of such a typhoon of anti-truth, namely us. We all have been endowed with the gift of reason to look at the stars and know that they simply cannot be unplanned or merely random. There in our very natures is a longing for a meaning that transcends our own existence. “Who am I am where to I come from?” are questions that will always need to be answered and the good news is that we have those answers! If anyone cares to embark on a careful study of the history of philosophy and true epistemology – great, be my guest – what a joyful, labor intensive and needed endeavor! But if others want the short version, find a good explanation of John Paul II’s theology of the human person. Cardinal Dulles has a very good one entitled The Splendor of Faith (pages 186-188).
A synthesis was given to us by our current Holy Father, Benedict XVI in his installation homily quoted in the article, “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.”
Br. Agostino Miguel Torres, CFR
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