"Vatican Dumps Darwinist-Boosting Astronomer"

The Jesuit priest-astronomer, Fr. George Coyne, who vocally opposed the Catholic understanding of God-directed creation, has been removed from his post as head of the Vatican observatory. Coyne, who has been head of the Vatican observatory for 25 years, is an expert in astrophysics, but more recently attracted controvercy by appointing himself as an expert in evolutionary biology and theology last summer in an article for the UK’s liberal Catholic magazine, The Tablet. Coyne wrote in opposition to Christoph Cardinal Schonborn, a principal author of the Catholic catechism, who said that an “unplanned process of random variation and natural selection,” both important parts of evolutionary thinking, are incompatible with Catholic belief in God’s ordering and guiding of creation. By contrast, Coyne dismisses the whole question as to whether human beings came about by chance or divine design as "no longer valid." (Hilary White, "Vatican Dumps Darwinist-Boosting Astronomer," LifeSiteNews.com, ROME, August 21, 2006)

Christoph Cardinal Schönborn claims random evolution is incompatible with belief in a creator God. In a critique of that view, the Vatican’s former chief astronomer, Fr. Coyne, says that science reflects God’s infinite purpose. Read Coyne's critique of Schönborn in his article, "God's Chance Creation," The Tablet (August 6, 2005).