Dear Peter:

Sorry I did not respond earlier; I have been in the hospital.

I am a little disappointed in you Peter for your lack of careful reading. I did not say, and I have never said, that man was evolved from apes. You need to be more careful in your reading and avoid the grave sin of Rash Judgment. I have tried to explain how the evolutionary theory and the creation of Man may be reconciled, but I have not endorsed the Theory of Macro-Evolution.

As I have stated, we are made in God's image. That "image" is spiritual, the rational soul, not the biological body. Last time I checked God does not have a biological body (except through the Incarnation of Jesus). This is CHURCH teaching, not my opinion.

The book of Genesis contains mythological stories. This is a literal fact, not opinion. That is the literary style of the Genesis story. Mythological stories may be TRUE and may also contain exaggerations and fiction in order to teach the truth being conveyed. Being a mythological literary form does not make the stories automatically fiction. Most myths contain a combination of facts and fiction.

The book of Genesis is NOT a history or a biology, nor is it meant to be a history or a biology. It is teaching us a religious truth, not an historical or biological truth.

God is God, he doesn't need your permission, or mine, to create any 'ol way He wants. God could have allowed the biological animals develop to a certain point that He then imbued a certain branch of primates with humanity -- a rational soul. God could have also created Adam in a nanosecond from the dust of the ground and only made him to look like an adult even though he was only a few seconds old. God could have created the Grand Canyon in a nanosecond and only made it look millions of years old. Or God could have allowed the natural course of things to evolve.

God is God, He does it as He pleases according to His nature. I could CARE LESS how He did it and only real point is that God is the creator of all things.

One can be a good Catholic and believe in an evolutionary process OR one can be a good Catholic and believe that the universe was created in six 24-hour days. IT DOES NOT MATTER since the story is meant to teach a religious truth, not a history or a biology. This too is fact, not opinion, and is the teaching of the Church.

What does matter, however, is the uncharity of scrupulous people who want to force their notions (of evolution or literal interpretation) of Genesis on everyone else, contrary to the Church's teaching on this. Shame on you.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

P.S. By the way. I personally do not and have never supported the Theory of Macro-Evolution, but since I am not God and leave those matters up to Him. All I care about is the fact that God is the creator, that we do have a set of original parents (an Adam and Eve), and that the soul is not evolved but personally imbued into the person at the moment of conception. This is Church teaching, beyond that one is free to opine himself as he wishes about creation as long as he does not dogmatize that opinion.