Rome and Theistic Evolutionism: The Hidden Strategies behind the ‘Dorlodot Affair’, 1920–1926

Teilhard De Chardin, Original Sin, and the Six Propositions

“…This has been due to a lack of new archival material and the diminishing number of living people with any knowledge of the events. More widely, Raf De Bont justly notes that “hardly anything is known about the Roman policy towards evolutionism” during the first half of the twentieth century (, 459), between Pope Pius X's condemnation of modernism in 1907 and Pope Pius XII's encyclical Humani generis in 1950.…”

“…Paulin Ladeuze, who was Dorlodot's rector at the University of Louvain as well as professor of exegesis, was contacted by the secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and asked to request from Dorlodot some further explication of his views. Moreover, it was suggested that Dorlodot was too close to Touzard (De Bont , 470), who, as just explained, had denied the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Dorlodot responded to Ladeuze by defending his biblical orthodoxy and called into question the competence of the Commission to judge evolutionary theory, suggesting that this, being strictly non‐biblical, was a matter for the “Holy Chair” itself.…”

“…Dorlodot responded to Ladeuze by defending his biblical orthodoxy and called into question the competence of the Commission to judge evolutionary theory, suggesting that this, being strictly non‐biblical, was a matter for the “Holy Chair” itself. Dorlodot sought to mobilize networks of support, including Cardinal Francis Bourne, who had provided his imprimatur for Darwinism and Catholic Thought , Archbishop Pietro Maffi of Pisa, and the Vatican archivist Francis Gasquet (De Bont , 471). Meanwhile, Ladeuze responded eirenically to Cardinal Willem Van Rossum, the Commission's president, but in June the cardinal replied to him stating that he had had Dorlodot's book subjected to formal examination and that faults had been found with it (quoted in Lambert , 518).…”

“…Dorlodot indeed refused to comply, adding that to do so would be to lie, and restating his view that Van Rossum was stepping beyond his competence. Ladeuze, who was increasingly worried about the impact of the growing confrontation on the University of Louvain and Catholics in the wider region (De Bont , 472), prevailed upon Arthur Vermeersch, a Jesuit theology professor at the Gregorian University in Rome, to seek an audience with Pope Pius XI in July, which he secured. After Vermeersch had presented the matter, the Pope indicated his personal interest in the topic, on which he had written in his youth, including with reference to the French palaeontologist Joachim Barrande (De Bont , 473).…”

Catholic Responses to Evolution, 1859–2009: Local Influences and Mid‐Scale Patterns

“…After the "affaire", he felt compelled to abandon his plans to publish a second volume on evolution and never replied to the requests for a German translation of his first volume. 57 On the other hand, he never officially retracted his work. The fact that De Dorlodot did not receive any reprimand, indicated that the power of the traditionalists had started to wane.…”