Dear Dave:

You have some serious misconceptions about the Church. The Church does not claim, and has never claimed to be an authority on science. The Church is not a scientific institution. The Church does not make scientific proclamations.

As for evolutionary theory, the Church DOES NOT officially teach a "creationist" view of Genesis, or an "evolutionary" view of Genesis. The Church does not care HOW things developed, only WHO was the Creator. God is God and He can create the universe in a blink of an eye and make it look 10 billion years old when it is actually only one second old, or He could set things in motion and allow the universe to evolve. Who cares! Such things as the mechanisms of how the universe developed are left to science.

The Church's interest is that it was God WHO created the universe. The account of creation in Genesis is not a scientific account, and is not meant to be a scientific account. It is, rather, a story that reveals "religious truth". This is true of all the Bible -- the religious truth is the primary concern; any historical, archeological, anthropological, or other scientific truths that might be in the Scriptures are just icing on the cake, but it is not the cake, nor does the cake require the icing to be a good and tasty cake.

This religious aspect of Creation, not the scientific aspect, is what the Church preaches upon. The evolutionary view may be true, it may not be true, it may be partially true, who cares? The theory of Evolution does not threaten our faith at all.

In the matter of which you quote me, it is obvious that you lack utterly any understanding of the subject matter. The Church does have the authority given to her by God Himself to investigate spiritual matters and matters of faith and morals. Miracles are in the realm of spiritual matters of the faith.

When investigating "miracles" and such the Church employs scientists to investigate the scientific aspect of the event. The Church seeks to expose a hoax if indeed such an event is a hoax. While the Church, herself is not a scientific institution, the Church certainly looks to science and scientists to research and investigate scientific things. Because of this strict scrutiny of the Church most alleged "miracles" are found to be false. The Church "verifying" a miracle is very rare.

In fact, the scientific progress before the 17th century was largely due to the support of the Catholic Church, including research from monk-scientists. The Church is still a MAJOR supporter of science.

And no, Galileo was NOT persecuted for his scientific theories. In fact, at the same time as Galileo there were Jesuit scientists who posited the very same theory.

Galileo got into trouble when he arrogantly posited his theories as absolute truth without proving any proof. But this is not really got him in trouble with the truth.

Galileo was censured for trying to play theologian and apply his science to theology. He was not qualified to do that. If he had stayed with the science only, things would have been very different.

If you actually have an interest in the truth, see this article on the REAL TRUTH of the Galileo Controversy.

Also: Adam,Eve, and Evolution.asp

The idea that the Catholic Church is somehow anti-science or insensitive to science is just another bigoted urban legend.

As for the ignorance and arrogance of the Church, I suggest that perhaps you look in the mirror and then get an eductation on what the Church history really is and what the Church really teaches.

But I cannot blame you for your ignorance. Since you have rejected Truth, you cannot be expected to understand Truth.

We will be in continual prayer that somehow the Holy Spirit can break through your arrogance and pride to melt your heart so as to come to a knowledge of the Truth which is found in Jesus Christ.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary