Santorum and Evolution

Rick Santorum has always seemed to have a problem with the theory of evolution. In 2001 he tried to promote the teaching of intelligent design in his failed Santorum Amendment to the No Child Left Behind Act, and now he still tries to promote it in his presidential campaign.

But why?! It is par for the course for Republican politicians from certain Protestant denominatons to profess their believe in creationism. However Santorum is Catholic. The Roman Catholic Church has never officially condemned the theory of evolution. In 1950 (8 years before Santorum was born) the Papal encyclical Humani Generis clearly stated that it was permissible for Catholics to believe in evolution. In 1996 (5 years before the Santorum Amendment) Pope John Paul II went even further in his address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and all but endorsed the theory of evolution: "... new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis."

Is Rick Santorum trying to be more Catholic than the Pope?