When it comes to stating authoritatively what the Church teaches about faith and science, it helps to have the actual documents written by Popes in hand. Below are links to some of the most significant documents written by the Popes on this topic over the past 125 years.
Address to the Plenary Session and to the Study Week on the Subject ‘The Problem of Stellar Populations’ – Pope Pius XII
Article- 2300 words
- Level: all audiences
An address by Pope Pius XII at a 1957 Astronomical Conference in Vatican City: “The Problem of Stellar Populations”. The conference was attended by scientists including W. Baade, W. A. Fowler, G. H. Herbig, A. R. Sandage, M. Schwarzschild, and L. Spitzer. The pope discusses one of Baade’s papers, and comments on the contributions that Vatican Observatory can make to the field. From the abstract of the address:
The Supreme Pontiff surveys the state of scientific research into the ‘starry firmament’, whose immensity and order speaks to humanity of the ‘power and wisdom of its Author’. He stresses that such inquiry implies a search for higher truths and observes that advance in this area, as in others, must be linked to higher aspirations: ‘since the moral universe transcends the physical world, every gain made by science is on a plane lower than that of man’s personal destiny’. The scientist, therefore, must also turn to the ‘acquisition of spiritual values, of justice and of charity’.
Click here for the papal address, courtesy of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
Click here to download a PDF of the address.
Benedict XVI – Via Satellite connection with the International Space Station Astronauts
- Article (transcript)
- 1800 words
- Level: all audiences
A transcript of Pope Benedict XVI speaking to the crew of the International Space Station in 2011. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Pope Benedict concludes:
I thank you warmly for this wonderful opportunity to meet and dialogue with you. You have helped me and many other people to reflect together on important issues that regard the future of humanity. I wish you the very best for your work and for the success of your great mission at the service of science, international collaboration, authentic progress, and for peace in the world. I will continue to follow you in my thoughts and prayers and I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.
Click here for this material from Inters.org.
Click here for this material from the Vatican web page.
Catechism of the Catholic Church – References to Science
Book (excerpts) 1700 words Level: university level The following are the paragraphs within the Catechism of the Catholic Church that contain references to natural science, scientists, and scientific research. Some of these paragraphs discuss science directly. In others the reference to science is merely tangential. Click on the boldfaced paragraph numbers to go to the appropriate section in the English text of the Catechism found on the web page of the Vatican (this will also provide access to the notes numbered in these paragraphs). The paragraphs here are based on the Vatican English text, as available in September of 2017. 31 Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments”, which allow us to attain … Continue reading →
Creation Reveals God’s Glory – St. John Paul II
Article- 1000 words
- Level: all audiences
Pope John Paul II in a March 1986 General Audience discusses creation and scriptural references to how creation proclaims the glory of God :
A new dimension of God’s glory begins with the creation of the visible and invisible world. This glory is called “exterior” to distinguish it from the previous one. Sacred Scripture speaks of it in many passages and in different ways. Some examples will suffice.
Psalm 19 proclaims: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his handiwork…. There is no speech, nor are there words whose sound is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps 19:1, 2, 4). The Book of Sirach states: “The sun looks down on everything with its light, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory” (42:16). The Book of Baruch has a very singular and evocative expression: “The stars shone in their watches and were glad; he called them, and they said, ‘Here we are!’ They shone with gladness for him who made them” (3:34).
Elsewhere the biblical text sounds like an appeal addressed to creatures to proclaim the glory of God the Creator. For example, the Book of Daniel states: “O all you works of the Lord, bless the Lord, to him be highest glory and praise forever” (3:57). Or Psalm 66: “Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name: give to him glorious praise! Say to God, ‘How glorious are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth worships you; they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name'” (1-4).
Sacred Scripture is full of similar expressions: “O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (Ps 104:24). The whole created universe is a multiple, powerful and incessant appeal to proclaim the glory of the Creator. “All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord” (Num 14:21); for “both riches and honor come from you” (1 Chr 29:12).
Click here for the full text of John Paul II’s discussion (Italian) from the Vatican’s web page.
Click here for an English translation of the full text of John Paul II’s discussion, from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti.
Fides et Ratio – Faith and Reason – Encyclical Letter of John Paul II
- Papal encyclical (PDF)
- 63 pages
- Level: university
Philosophy and theology are the primary topics of consideration of the encyclical letter of Pope St. John Paul II entitled Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). However, the encyclical contains a number of references to, and short discussions of, science. In this copy, references to science have been highlighted for quick reference.
[Click here to download PDF]Fides-Et-Ratio-Science
Francis – Address to Participants in the Summer Course of the Vatican Observatory
Article (Papal Address)- 560 words
- Level: all audiences
In 2014 Pope Francis addressed the participants in the Vatican Observatory’s summer school. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Pope Francis notes:
Here too we see a further reason for the Church’s commitment to dialogue with the sciences on the basis of the light provided by faith: it is her conviction that faith is capable of both expanding and enriching the horizons of reason. In this dialogue, the Church rejoices in the marvelous progress of science, seeing it as a sign of the enormous God-given potential of the human mind, even as a mother rejoices and is rightly proud as her children grow “in wisdom, and age and grace” (Lk 2:52).
Click here for this material from Inters.org.
Click here for this material from the Vatican web page.
Humani Generis (1950)
- Article
- 11 pages (6000 words)
- Level: university
In 1950, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical about the origins of man which affirmed that “The Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter—for the Catholic faith obliges us to hold that souls are immediately created by God.”
Below is a copy of the official English translation of the full encyclical. Click here for a link to the Latin version.
[Click here to download PDF]
Humani Generis (August 12, 1950) | PIUS XII
John Paul II on the Relationship between the Natural Sciences and Religious Belief
- Article (with links to five Papal documents)
- 2300 words
- Level: university
This article by Fr. George Coyne, S. J. (Director of the Vatican Observatory from 1978 to 2006) from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science discusses Fr. Coyne’s understanding of the work of Pope John Paul II on the topic of faith and science; among the key documents is a letter from His Holiness to Fr. Coyne as director of the Vatican Observatory.
The Cultural Values of Science – St. John Paul II
- Article
- 900 words
- Level: all audiences
Pope John Paul II in a November 11, 2002 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences discusses the cultural values of science, and notes that science itself represents a value for human knowledge and the human community:
For it is thanks to science that we have a greater understanding today of man’s place in the universe, of the connections between human history and the history of the cosmos, of the structural cohesion and symmetry of the elements of which matter is composed, of the remarkable complexity and at the same time the astonishing coordination of the life processes themselves. It is thanks to science that we are able to appreciate ever more what one member of this Academy has called “the wonder of being human”….
Click here for the full text of John Paul II’s discussion from the Vatican’s web page.
Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J.
- Article
- 3900 words
- Level: high school and above
A 1988 letter from Pope John Paul II to Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., then Director of the Vatican Observatory, on the three hundredth anniversary of the publication of Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Click here to access this text via the Vatican’s website.
[Click here to download PDF]LETTER-JPII-Coyne
Popes and Astronomy
- Book chapter (PDF)
- 33 pages
- Level: all audiences
This chapter from the 2009 book The Heavens Proclaim: Astronomy and the Vatican includes relevant statements by modern Popes, from Leo XIII through Benedict XVI, about the Church and astronomy. Contents include:
Pope Leo XIII
Excerpt from AETERNI PATRIS, 1879
THE REFOUNDATION AND RESTRUCTURING OF THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY, 1891
Pope Pius XI
DEUM CREATOREM VENITE ADOREMUS, 1935
Pope Pius XII
Excerpt from AN ADDRESS to the PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 1939
Excerpt from THE PROOFS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD IN THE LIGHT OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE, 1951
ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE INTERATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL UNION, 1952
Pope St. John Paul II
LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II TO REVEREND GEORGE V. COYNE, S.J., DIRECTOR OF THE VATICAN OBSERVATORY, 1983
Pope Benedict XVI
ADDRESS TO THE 2007 VATICAN OBSERVATORY SUMMER SCHOOL
ADDRESS TO THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 2008
ADDRESS AT THE WEEKLY ANGELUS, 21 December 2008
HOMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD, 2009
[Click here to download PDF]
popes-and-astronomy
The Proofs for God’s Existence – St. John Paul II
- Article
- 1200 words
- Level: all audiences
Pope John Paul II in a July 1985 General Audience discusses evidence for the existence of God to be found in observing the created universe. John Paul notes that such evidence is not the same as scientific evidence:
In speaking of the existence of God we should underline that we are not speaking of proofs in the sense implied by the experimental sciences. Scientific proofs in the modern sense of the word are valid only for things perceptible to the senses, since it is only on such things that scientific instruments of investigation can be used. To desire a scientific proof of God would be equivalent to lowering God to the level of the beings of our world, and we would therefore be mistaken methodologically in regard to what God is. Science must recognize its limits and its inability to reach the existence of God. It can neither affirm nor deny his existence.
However, he argues that the evidence exists nonetheless. Moreover, he argues, claiming that chance explains the universe is equivalent to giving up on trying to understand how the universe works:
To speak of chance for a universe which presents such a complex organization in its elements, and such a marvelous finality in its life would be equivalent to giving up the search for an explanation of the world as it appears to us. In fact, this would be equivalent to admitting effects without a cause. It would be to abdicate human intelligence which would thus refuse to think, and to seek a solution for its problems.
Click here for the full text of John Paul II’s discussion (Italian) from the Vatican’s web page.
Click here for an English translation of the full text of John Paul II’s discussion, from the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti.
Science in the Service of Peace – St. John Paul II
- Article
- 3000 words
- Level: all audiences
Pope John Paul II in a November 12, 1983 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences discusses science, truth, and peace:
All knowledge takes its nobility and dignity from the truth that it expresses. Only in the unbiased pursuit of truth do culture and especially science preserve their freedom and are able to defend it from any attempt at manipulation by ideologies or powers.
‘The truth will set you free’: these words from the Gospel enjoy perennial validity and illumine with divine light the endeavours of the scientist who refuses to subordinate his commitment and his research to anything but the truth.
Truth is the goal of the whole universe: finis totius Universi est veritas, as one of the greatest thinkers of all time, Thomas Aquinas, wrote. The truth of all beings, their forms and their laws are hidden in the bosom of the Universe, which yearns for its truth to be discovered by the human intellect. You, Men of Science, who welcome the world into your minds, work upon it in your laboratories, and investigate its most secret byways in your dedicated efforts, what are you seeking if not the truth?
Have courage and the boldness of reason that untiringly seeks the truth and you will find in the Church and in this Apostolic See your most convinced allies. Of course, the conquests of science are at times provisional, subject to review and rethinking, and they will never succeed in expressing the whole truth hidden in the Universe. The sense of mystery is part of your intellectual heritage and reminds you that what you do not know is much vaster than what you do know. In the search for truth, the boldness of reasons is linked with the humility of its own limits, the joy of knowing goes hand-in-hand with wonder at the unknown.
Furthermore, the sense of mystery also envelops those truths which science cannot discover, but which question the mind of the scientist in the innermost part of his being, where he experiences an irresistible longing and yearning for the divine. The goal of the Universe is not only to reveal the truths it holds within itself, but to manifest the First Truth which gave the worlds its origin and form.All knowledge takes its nobility and dignity from the truth that it expresses. Only in the unbiased pursuit of truth do culture and especially science preserve their freedom and are able to defend it from any attempt at manipulation by ideologies or powers….
More than any other, the scientific community is a community of peace, for your rigorous search for the truth in the field of nature is independent of ideologies and therefore of the conflicts that result from them. Your activity demands sincere collaboration, and the frank communication of the results or your research.
The scientific community, a community of peace, must be extended to all nations, through the foundation everywhere of institutes for the research and sound technological application. It is not enough that political colonialism has ceased; every form of scientific and technological colonialism must cease as well. I cannot fail to note with satisfaction that the Pontifical Academy of Sciences includes an ever greater number of scientists from all the nations of the world, with no racial or religious discrimination. This is a form of cultural ecumenism which the Church, as the promoter of the true religious ecumenism, cannot but regard with a sense or lively satisfaction.
Vatican II – Gaudium et Spes on Science
- Article – excerpt from Vatican II Pastoral Constitution (PDF)
- 2000 words (English)
- Level: university
Paragraph 159 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes this quotation regarding faith and science: “Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.” A reference is provided—section 36 of “Gaudium et Spes” from the Second Vatican Council. The PDF here contains the third chapter of the document (which contains section 36) in both Latin and English.
[Click here to download PDF]
GS-Chap-III
Benedict XVI – Via Satellite connection with the International Space Station Astronauts
- Article (transcript)
- 1800 words
- Level: all audiences
A transcript of Pope Benedict XVI speaking to the crew of the International Space Station in 2011. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Pope Benedict concludes:
I thank you warmly for this wonderful opportunity to meet and dialogue with you. You have helped me and many other people to reflect together on important issues that regard the future of humanity. I wish you the very best for your work and for the success of your great mission at the service of science, international collaboration, authentic progress, and for peace in the world. I will continue to follow you in my thoughts and prayers and I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing.
Click here for this material from Inters.org.
Click here for this material from the Vatican web page.
Vatican I on Faith and Science – Dei Filius
- Article – Vatican I Dogmatic Constitution (PDF)
- 4000 words (English)
- Level: university
Paragraph 159 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes this quotation regarding faith and science: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.” A reference is provided—the fourth chapter of “Dei Filius” from the First Vatican Council. The PDF here contains both the document in Latin and an English translation.
[Click here to download PDF]
Dei-Filius
Letter of His Holiness John Paul II to Reverend George V. Coyne, S.J.
- Article
- 3900 words
- Level: high school and above
A 1988 letter from Pope John Paul II to Fr. George V. Coyne, S. J., then Director of the Vatican Observatory, on the three hundredth anniversary of the publication of Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Click here to access this text via the Vatican’s website.
[Click here to download PDF]LETTER-JPII-Coyne
Vatican I on Faith and Science – Dei Filius
- Article – Vatican I Dogmatic Constitution (PDF)
- 4000 words (English)
- Level: university
Paragraph 159 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes this quotation regarding faith and science: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.” A reference is provided—the fourth chapter of “Dei Filius” from the First Vatican Council. The PDF here contains both the document in Latin and an English translation.
[Click here to download PDF]
Dei-Filius
Fides et Ratio – Faith and Reason – Encyclical Letter of John Paul II
- Papal encyclical (PDF)
- 63 pages
- Level: university
Philosophy and theology are the primary topics of consideration of the encyclical letter of Pope St. John Paul II entitled Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason). However, the encyclical contains a number of references to, and short discussions of, science. In this copy, references to science have been highlighted for quick reference.
[Click here to download PDF]Fides-Et-Ratio-Science
Vatican II – Joseph Ratzinger on The Christian and the Technological World
- Article (book excerpt, PDF)
- 1200 words
- Level: university
An excerpt from the 1966 Theological Highlights of Vatican II, by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI). The topic is the third chapter of the first part of Gaudium et Spes (“Man’s Activity throughout the World”), which treats science and technology. Fr. Ratzinger notes:
The objectivity of science is much more in line with the idea of creation than a false divinization of the world which science and faith equally reject…. The scientific view of the world, which presupposes both the world’s non-divinity and its logical and comprehensible structure, is profoundly in accord with the view of the world as created (and thus non-divine): the world as produced by the Logos, God’s Spirit-filled Word. Thus, like the Logos, the world is rationally and spiritually structured. One might even say that only such a basic attitude makes natural science possible in its full scope.
Click here for a preview, courtesy of Google Books.
Click here for Part I, Chapter III of Gaudium et Spes.
[Click here to download PDF]THOVII
Vatican II – Gaudium et Spes on Science
- Article – excerpt from Vatican II Pastoral Constitution (PDF)
- 2000 words (English)
- Level: university
Paragraph 159 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes this quotation regarding faith and science: “Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.” A reference is provided—section 36 of “Gaudium et Spes” from the Second Vatican Council. The PDF here contains the third chapter of the document (which contains section 36) in both Latin and English.
[Click here to download PDF]
GS-Chap-III
Catechism of the Catholic Church – References to Science
Book (excerpts) 1700 words Level: university level The following are the paragraphs within the Catechism of the Catholic Church that contain references to natural science, scientists, and scientific research. Some of these paragraphs discuss science directly. In others the reference to science is merely tangential. Click on the boldfaced paragraph numbers to go to the appropriate section in the English text of the Catechism found on the web page of the Vatican (this will also provide access to the notes numbered in these paragraphs). The paragraphs here are based on the Vatican English text, as available in September of 2017. 31 Created in God’s image and called to know and love him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know him. These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments”, which allow us to attain … Continue reading →