Evolution and Youth Catechesis

FAITH Magazine September-October 2007

Pope Benedict In a question and answer session with 400 diocesan priests in north eastern Italy at the end of his holiday, July 27th 2007.

. “...there is a great deal of scientific proof in favour of evolution, which appears as a reality that we must see and that enriches our knowledge of life and of being as such...

“But the doctrine of evolution does not answer everything and does not answer the great philosophical question: Where does everything come from? And how does everything take a path that ultimately leads to the person?... It seems to me that it is very important that reason opens up even more, that it sees this information, but that it also sees that this information is not enough to explain all of reality. It is not enough...

“Our reason is not something irrational at heart, a product of irrationality. And reason precedes everything, creative reason, and we are truly the reflection of this reason... We are planned and wanted and, therefore, there is an idea that precedes me, a meaning that precedes me, which I must discover, follow and which, in the end, gives meaning to my life.”

Linking Evolution with the creator is important because, he said, many young people are: “even thinking that without God, we would be freer and the world would be broader. But after a while, in our new generations, we see what happens when God disappears... The major problem is that if God is not there and the Creator of my life is not there, in reality life is a simple part of evolution, nothing more, it does not have meaning in itself.”