Sacrificing dialogue for politics?

THE RECENT STATEMENT OF VIENNESE Cardinal Schönborn “clarifying” the Catholic position on evolution is disconcerting (1). Schönborn, who is a close ally of Pope Benedict XVI, declares that “evolution in the neo-Darwinian sense is not true” and that there is “overwhelming evidence for design in biology,” thus aligning the Catholic Church with the Intelligent Design movement. The strategy is familiar. The sophistication of evolutionary theory is misrepresented, and the process is cartooned as solely consisting of random mutation and natural selection, thus concocting a facile state of disbelief in the audience. Ample reference is made to Church documents, which declare that an unguided process of evolution outside the bounds of divine