The Origins debate is essentially a fairly modern controversy within Christianity. Apart from speculation by ancient Greeks some 600 years before Christ, the Evolution Theories of Naturalists (which were supposedly based on phenomenal data) only began to impact man's thought substantially from the early 19th century. The idea that Scripture contains true history (described "according to appearances"), as well as presented in the literal-as-given obvious sense, was first explained by Pope Leo XIII as recently as 1893. Thus, various Origins aspects have not been fully addressed in Tradition and still await clarification by the Magisterium.
Many Catholics incline toward generalized concepts of Theistic Evolution and argue that "Evolution" could have been the method of Creation used by God. (At issue, however, is what God actually chose to do when creating the Universe and all creatures and plants, and not what He could have done.) Many are loath to accept as literally true any passage in the Genesis Creation accounts, and appeals to Tradition tend to be dismissed as irrelevant. The Pentateuch tends to be seen as primarily applicable in a "salvation history" sense, as if it were known with certainty that the Divine Author did not intend to convey history. At stake in the Origins debate is nothing less than the integrity of Genesis, so foundational to the Church founded by Jesus Christ.
Catholic proponents of Evolution find little real comfort in official Magisterial teachings. But their openness to Theistic Evolution necessarily involves a departure from standard Evolution Theory, in favor implicitly of innumerable divine interventions. In addition, they now face another problem of credibility. Not only was polygenism (many "first parents") effectively prohibited in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church (endorsed by Pope John Paul II), but various Creation aspects were reiterated in it. In contrast, the word "Evolution" was not specifically mentioned even once in this catechism!
Many paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church relate to Creation themes, including the following: The existence of God can be known by reason; the Bible is totally free from error; the great trustworthiness of God, who cannot deceive; the very point of creation of the Universe was to create human beings; God did not make death - which only came into the world because of Adam's sin (Romans 5:12); human nature is thus wounded in its natural powers and the whole of Creation groans also in result; the importance of secondary causes; the great need to be mindful of Catholic Tradition; the Flood is mentioned in covenant context. A few sections which could vaguely be said to support evolutionary concepts are also explicable by Special Creation beliefs. For example,