"Is Evolution an Open Question for Catholics?"
Kolbe Center for the Study of Creation
Given the then seemingly doctrinally united state of the Catholic Church prior to the 1960’s, there would have been no need for Pius XII to hurry and certainly no need to concede the status of “open question” to evolutionists intent on overturning doctrine. However, it is also true that prior to 1953 it may have seemed credible that matter might contain inherent evolutionary properties which would allow life forms to unfold naturally, imperceptibly, with minute small changes gradually giving way to large scale changes, with no need for divine intervention. This micro to macro speculation suffers profoundly from the complete lack of fossilized transitional evidence buried in the rocks, but who could have known with certainty prior to the 1953 watershed whether matter did or did not contain such properties? Many years later, in 1975, Prof. Jerome Lejeune showed that no accumulation of micro changes can amount to macroevolution, but this finding was not available until 25 years after Humani Generis was issued. (Lejeune showed, for example, that there can be no such thing as an indiscernible gorillization.)
As scientific research progressed in the second half of the 20th Century it became increasingly clear to objective researchers that macro-evolutionary changes are impossible. And it is almost impossible to postulate an earlier precursor to incredibly complex molecules. The possibility for evolution to occur is not affected by eons of time but rather is determined by the specific information designed into life forms. The evidence all points to Special Creation by a transcendent Designer. Since 1953, the obvious conclusion has stood out with ever-greater clarity-the Creator must have designed life forms so that only micro changes within kind are possible. This is because the discovery of DNA made it possible to understand the way that genetic information is coded and the way that changes in the code produce mutations. At last, it gradually became possible to correctly define the term “evolution”. Of necessity evolution requires the natural gaining of higher genetic information not possessed by one’s ancestors, and this possibility is ruled out on the basis that “nothing can give what it does not have”.
Thus, the pertinent information sought by Pius XII was finally available, long after his death. Detailed research and discussions have since been carried out by enough scientists and theologians, and the objective conclusion is that Adam’s body must have been derived from previously existent-but non-living-matter. (On Day 6 God rapidly created Adam body and soul. In so doing he instantly transformed the use of sufficient elementary particles already created on Day 1 within the inorganic soil into that of the functioning adult body of Adam, the first adult male human being, and simultaneously created his rational soul.)