Birth Name:  Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli
Born: March 2, 1876 at Rome, Italy
Died:  October 2, 1958 at Castel Gandolfo, Italy (Age 82)
Elected: March 2, 1939, the 260th Roman Pontiff
Pontificate:  Infalibly defined the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother in 1950; Worked behind the scenes to help save the lives of several hundred thousand Italian Jews, although he has been criticized for not being more publicly vocal against the Nazi regime; excommunicated all Catholics adhering to the Communist ideology; Issued encyclical Humani Generis, permitting the study of evolution of the human form without violating the doctrine that the first man (Adam) was infused with a soul (made in the image of God) and in a perfect state of grace
Motto:  Pax Christi in Regno Christi  (The work of justice [shall be] [peace]cccc)




                                

Excerpts from Humani Generis (On Human Origin)

2.  ...absolutely speaking, human reason by its own natural force and light can arrive at a true and certain knowledge of the one personal God.

3.  ...divine revelation must be considered morally necessary so that those religious and moral truths which are not of their nature beyond the reach of reason in the present condition of the human race, may be known by all mean readily with a firm certainty and with freedom from all error.

5.  Some imprudently and indiscreetly hold that evolution, which has not been fully proved even in the domain of natural sciences, explains the origin of all things, and audaciously support the monistic and pantheistic opinion that the world is in continual evolution.

14.  In theology some want to reduce to a minimum the meaning of dogmas; and to free dogma itself from terminology long established in the Church and from philosophical concepts held by Catholic teachers...Moreover, they assert that when Catholic doctrine has been reduced to this condition, a way will be found to satisfy modern needs... Wherefore they do not consider it absurd, but altogether necessary, that theology should substitute new concepts in place of the old ones.

18.  ...the duty...is incumbent on the faithful to flee also those errors which more or less approach heresy.

27.  ...the Mystical Body of Christ and the Roman Catholic Church are one and the same thing. Some reduce to a meaningless formula the necessity of belonging to the true Church in order to gain eternal salvation.
 

36. For these reasons 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. However this must be done in such a way that the reasons for both opinions, that is, those favorable and those unfavorable to evolution, be weighed and judged with the necessary seriousness, moderation and measure, and provided that all are prepared to submit to the judgment of the Church, to whom Christ has given the mission of interpreting authentically the Sacred Scriptures and of defending the dogmas of faithful[11] Some however rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from preexisting and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the facts which have been discovered up to now and by reasoning on those facts, and as if there were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question.

37. When, however, there is question of another conjectural opinion, namely polygenism, the children of the Church by no means enjoy such liberty. For the faithful cannot embrace that opinion which maintains either that after Adam there existed on this earth true men who did not take their origin through natural generation from him as from the first parent of all or that Adam represents a certain number of first parents.