Originally Posted by clone52 
Really. Shows my lack of knowledge then.
Here's a useful link, and quote therefrom.
Evolution and the Roman Catholic Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In an
October 22,
1996, address to the
Pontifical Academy of Sciences,
Pope John Paul II updated the Church's position to accept evolution of the human body:
"In his encyclical
Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII has already affirmed that there is no conflict between evolution and the doctrine of the faith regarding man and his vocation, provided that we do not lose sight of certain fixed points....Today, more than a half-century after the appearance of that encyclical, some new findings lead us toward the recognition of evolution as more than an hypothesis. In fact it is remarkable that this theory has had progressively greater influence on the spirit of researchers, following a series of discoveries in different scholarly disciplines. The convergence in the results of these independent studies -- which was neither planned nor sought -- constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory."
[8]
In the same address, Pope John Paul II rejected any theory of evolution that provides a materialistic explanation for the human
soul:
"Theories of evolution which, because of the philosophies which inspire them, regard the spirit either as
emerging from the forces of living matter, or as a simple epiphenomenon of that matter, are incompatible with the truth about man."
From a glance it looks like the Vatican's position has been at least neutral towards evolution since the 1950s, and friendly towards it late in John Paul II's time as Pope.
The church still holds rather strictly to a dualistic world view though, and rejects any arguments that the soul could result from evolution, as evidenced by the above quote.
