As declared by
Pope Leo XIII in
Providentissimus Deus, science cannot
contradict the Faith:
There can
never… be any real discrepancy between the theologian and the
physicist, as long as each confines himself within his own
lines, and both are careful, as St. Augustine warns us, "not to
make rash assertions, or to assert what is not known as known.”
Even today, many
commonly-held tenets of natural science are merely theories, not
certainties. This is not the case with the Catholic Faith, which
is a certainty.
The Church’s
magisterium authoritatively teaches on the correct interpretation
of Sacred Scripture. As Pope Pius XII taught in
Divino Afflatu Spiritu:
"The Holy
Ghost, Who spoke by them [the sacred writers], did not intend to
teach men these things—that is the essential nature of the
things of the universe..."; which principle "will apply to
cognate sciences…”
Providentissimus
Deus
also states that Scripture does not give scientific explanations
and many of its texts use “figurative language” or
expressions “commonly used at the time”, still used today
“even by the most eminent men of science” (like the word
“sunrise”). Such expressions are not scientific teachings about
the cosmic world.
So Catholics
should not use the Bible to assert explanations about natural
science, but may in good conscience hold to any particular cosmic
theory. Being faithful to the Church’s magisterium, the Society of
St. Pius X holds fast to these principles: no more and no less. |