Link: World Mourns for Pope’s Body
　　In addition to bridging the gap between East and West, and between Catholicism and other religious denominations, Pope John Paul II will be remembered for his efforts to bridge the gap between science and religion.

　　The change has been more evolutionary, so to speak, than revolutionary. After all, it was Pope Pius XII who in the early 1950s first cracked open the church’s doors to the possibility of accepting Big Bang theory as well as evolutionary theory. But you need only compare the phrasing of Pius XII’s encyclical "Humani Generis" with John Paul’s remarks on evolution in 1996 to see how things have changed.

　　John Paul also apologized in 1992 for the way his papal predecessors treated Galileo Galilei back in the 17th century, after the Vatican spent more than a decade reviewing the excommunicated astronomer’s case. Indeed, in a letter to the head of the Vatican Observatory back in 1988, the pontiff tried to set forth a live-and-let-live policy for religion and science, at least in terms of their interpretation of how the universe works:

　　"Religion is not founded on science, nor is science an extension of religion. Each should possess its own principles, its pattern of procedures, its diversities of interpretation and its own conclusions."

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