Cardinal: Barring intelligent design is censoring

NEW YORK - An influential Roman Catholic cardinal yesterday condemned a court decision in 2005 that barred a Pennsylvania school district from teaching intelligent design in biology class.

Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, Austria, whose comments on evolution are closely followed, said in a lecture that restricting debate about Darwin's theory of evolution amounted to censorship in schools and in the broader public.

"Commonly in the scientific community every inquiry into the scientific weaknesses of the theory is blocked off at the very outset," Schoenborn said of Darwinism.

"To some extent there prevails a type of censoring here of the sort for which one eagerly reproached the church in former times," he said.

The cardinal said he found it "amazing" that a federal court ruled in 2005 that the Dover, Pa., public school district could not teach the concept of intelligent design as part of its science class.

The judge had said that the theory, which says an intelligent supernatural force explains the emergence of complex life-forms, was creationism in disguise.

The cardinal said the ruling meant that schoolchildren would be taught only a materialistic, atheistic view of the origin of universe, without considering the idea that God played a role.

"A truly liberal society would at least allow students to hear of the debate," he said.

Schoenborn's comments came in a speech last night that was sponsored by the Homeland Foundation, a philanthropy that funds cultural and religious programs, many involving the Catholic Church.