Pope Leo XIII taught in the encyclical letter Arcanum Divinae Sapientiae (1880) that the bodies of Adam and Eve were specially created and that Eve’s body was created from a portion of Adam’s body. This Papal teaching effectively doomed any future attempted synthesis of evolution and theology. What evolutionist would accept the idea of evolution of males but not females?
Who were the supposed ape-like progenitors, lacking in rational souls? Pope Pius XII taught in Humani Generis that Catholics were not free to believe there were “Pre-Adamites” from whom we have descended. The non-existence of any intermediate stages descended from a supposed common progenitor of man and apelike creatures in the fossil record has been well shown by Marvin Lubenow in his book Bones Of Contention. The field evidence is either fully animal or fully human, but there have been fakes (Piltdown Man) and mistakes (Nebraska Man). And what actually constitutes a human being? The 1994 CCC (364) informs us that, “it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul”; to be raised up on the day of general judgement. A good reason why God would not use evolution as part of the means of Creation is that it could convey the wrong signals. Since evolving life-forms would in time reach a stage when it would be very confusing and difficult to discern separate species, it would thus be much easier for some to argue falsely but persuasively that there is no transcendent God-that things have always been this way on Earth and there is no need for a Creator.
Some researchers believe that the Cambrian “explosion” was a rapid (i.e., five million years) evolutionary burst of new life forms; on the contrary, it was an “explosion” of death during the global Flood of Noah.
Evolutionary beliefs favour an “upwards” tendency from imperfection to perfection; Catholic Tradition teaches a “downwards” corruption since the Fall. Evolutionary beliefs hold that we came into being above a vast museum of death, and death was always part of the “good” Creation; Catholic Tradition teaches that we were created in a state of tranquillity but this earthly state of paradise was lost by Adam’s sin. Henceforth individuals would have to struggle to exist against such things as an often harsh climate, devastating diseases, sinful human beings, and subtle Satanic attack from fallen angels.
In Romans 5:12 we are informed that death came only after the sin of Adam, not before (CCC 400,1008). We would not have known death if Adam have been obedient to God. Since the Fall human nature is wounded in the natural powers proper to it (CCC405).