Whatever problems there may be with the teaching of evolution, he [the biologist interviewed in L'Osservatore Romano] argues, should be challenged on scientific grounds.

Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, the Archbishop of Vienna who is extremely close to the Pope, opened debate in Church circles after writing a New York Times op-ed piece on design in nature that resonated with intelligent design's claims against evolutionary theory.

He told TIME last summer that he'd been encouraged by the then Cardinal Ratzinger in 2004 to pursue his doubts about what he calls "Neo-Darwinism" or the belief that evolution explains everything. "I believe in dogmas of faith but I don't believe in dogmas of science," Schonborn told TIME.

"'Intelligent design' not science: Vatican Newspaper"; Reuters:

The ID movement sometimes presents Catholicism, the world's largest Christian denomination, as an ally in its campaign. While the Church is socially conservative, it has a long theological tradition that rejects fundamentalist creationism.

Schoenborn later made it clear the Church accepted evolution as solid science but objected to the way some Darwinists concluded that it proved God did not exist and could "explain everything from the Big Bang to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony".

The Church, which has never rejected evolution, teaches that God created the world and the natural laws by which life developed. Even its best-known dissident, Swiss theologian Hans Kueng, echoed this in a recent book in Germany.

Schoenborn said he spoke up because he shared Benedict's concern, stated just before his election last April, that a "dictatorship of relativism" was trying to deny God's existence.

This literal reading of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is a tenet of faith for evangelical Protestants, a group that has become politically influential in the United States.

Many U.S. Catholics may agree with evangelicals politically, but the Church does not share their theology on this point. Intelligent design has few supporters outside the United States.

"Teaching intelligent design will confuse children, says Vatican"; The Telegraph:

Last October Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, who is close to Pope Benedict XVI, called into question the idea that Catholicism and evolution are at odds.

"I see no difficulty in joining belief in the Creator with the theory of evolution, but under the prerequisite that the borders of scientific theory are maintained," he said.