Evolution and the Catholic Church - Celebrating the greatness of John Paul II

I have known for a few years now that John Paul II supported evolution as consistent with Gods divine plan ("Truth cannot contradict Truth") as outlined in his 1996 encyclical (below)

http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm

What I didnt know was that he was expounding on a position that Pius XII had taken as early as 1950. Essentially the Catholic Church for more than 50 years has supported the theory of evolution as long as certain conditions were met. The most important condition is that although the human body may have evolved from less complex predecessors through mutation and natural selection the "soul was implanted by God"

I think that this is a most reasonable belief (compromise). It is indeed surprising that American Protestantism (especially the Baptists and their ilk) cannot come to terms with this logic (and the indisputable scientific proof that man evolved from less complex creatures over millions of years). Rather they read Genesis literally and spend 25Mn on Creation Museums.

A friend of mine was recently challenged by one of her fellow doctors in the Bible belt that no division of Christianity supports Evolution. I guess she should inform this gentleman that at least two leaders (both staunch Conservatives) of the largest Christian
denomination in the world i.e. Roman Catholicism with 1 billion followers supported this theory.

This is another reason to love John Paul (besides defeating the evil of Communism and having the courage to journey to the wailing wall and ask forgiveness from the Jews for the lousy way Christians have treated them for 2000 years he also reconciled science and faith).

He really did make the world a better place.