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Page 3

"However, this must be done in such a way that reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to which Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scripture and defending dogmas of faith.

"Some, however, highly transgress this liberty of discussion when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already completely certain and proved by facts which have been discovered up to now, and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in the sources of Divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question.

"When, however, there is a question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this Earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generations from him as from the first parent of all, or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.

"Now it is in no way apparent how such an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources of revealed truth and documents of the teaching authority of the Church propose with regard to Original Sin, which proceeds from sin actually committed by an individual Adam and which through generation is passed on to all and is in everyone as his own." 14

In commenting on the Fall and in addition to referring to the Council of Trent and to Pope Paul VI, the Catechism of the Catholic Church referred to the above section in Humani Generis concerning polygenism:

"The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole of human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents." (390).

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14 Humani Generis, Denzinger, pp. 2327-2328. Emphasis added.