Pope Francis has waded into the controversial debate over the origins of human life, saying the big bang theory did not contradict the role of a divine creator, but even required it.
Hahahaha no.
I guess expecting the media not to hang on to every word out of Bergoglio's mouth is too much, but here I'm actually disappointed in him*. One of the few things I sort-of expected the Pope to do is to declare the Church as officially hands-off on science. Go full separate magisteria and say "no, we are the Church, we talk souls and morality and all that crap, but science we leave to the scientists". Perhaps not in those exact words.
It's not like there's no precedent for it, their current stance on evolution is about halfway there. And sure, it's massively intellectually dishonest, but it's not like that's news. It's a decent nod to the liberals he always tries to woo, while it won't piss off the conservatives too much since, again, they're already halfway there. Most Catholics have no strong attachment to Creationism*, and those that do are free to go ignoring science and complaining about why there are still monkeys to their hearts' content. It's about as close as it gets to a win-win situation in this game.
But no, the Pope wants to think he has something relevant to say on scientific matters. Well, fuck him. He doesn't.
*Considering how low my expectations of him are, that takes some work.
**Young Earth, at least. Most of them are Old Earth Creationists, but they
think they accept evolution, so either way they don't care.