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Cindy
Lynn Carter wrote: |
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Hello —
And thank you for your wonderful web site.
I am currently in RCIA to become Catholic and have been
disturbed by some of the answers I'm getting from
my catechists. One statement was, Adam and Eve never
existed.
Now I understand that Catholics don't take everything as literally
as Evangelicals do but at the same time, I don't believe they
just toss out parts of the Bible as fantasy.
- What does the
Church really believe on this?
- Did Adam and Eve really exist?
Thank you,
Cindy
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| { Seeing the Church doesn't take everything literally, does She believe Adam and Eve really existed? } |
Mike replied:
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Hi Cindy,
Thanks for the question.
The Church teaches that Catholics must believe that God created
one man and one woman, who propagated the society we have today, and
through which original sin has been inherited by all mankind. This is what the Catechism says on the topic of original sin:
You said:
- Did Adam and Eve really exist?
Well, the Scriptures say they existed and the Scriptures refer to them as Adam and Eve.
Read Genesis 1-4.
The Church has always referred to the first man as Adam,
which means "man", and the first woman as Eve, which means "living one", because she was the mother of the living. We refer
to Christ as the New Adam, (or new man) and Our Blessed Mother as the New Eve.
I hope this answers your question.
Mike Humphrey
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Eric replied:
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Hi Cindy,
Thanks for the question.
I'd like to quote Humani Generis 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 that either 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. Now it is no way apparent how such
an opinion can be reconciled with that which the sources
of revealed truth and the documents of the Teaching Authority
of the Church propose with regard to original sin, which
proceeds from a sin actually committed by an individual
Adam and which, through generation, is passed on to all
and is in everyone as his own.
[cf. Romans 5:12-19; the Council of Trent (1551), Session V, canon
1-4] |
Eric Ewanco
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