Rome holds a tentative position regarding an old earth, common ancestry (through not a continuum between humans and animals), etc. However, the popes (JP II and Pius XII) have been very clear in their denunciation of Darwinistic/secular ideas: against the "non-overlapping magisteria", against a continuum between humans and animals, and positively stating there will be empirical signs of man's spiritual nature (ID is a subcategory of this concept).
The claim that Roman Catholicism is contrary to ID and embraces all aspects of evolutionary theory, especially Darwinism, is secular propaganda; which, unfortunately, appears to have been widely accepted by both lay Catholics and the Catholic intelligentsia. This claim, however, is clearly false if one takes the time to read the papal encyclicals on the topic.
"Truth Cannot Contradict Truth", Pope John Paul II:
http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm
"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points."
"The Church's magisterium is directly concerned with the question of evolution, for it involves the conception of man: Revelation teaches us that he was created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1:27-29)."
"...theories of evolution which, in accordance with the philosophies inspiring them, consider the spirit as emerging from the forces of living matter or as a mere epiphenomenon of this matter, are incompatible with the truth about man."
"The moment of transition to the spiritual cannot be the object of this kind of observation, which nevertheless can discover at the experimental level a series of very valuable signs indicating what is specific to the human being."
The claim that Roman Catholicism is contrary to ID and embraces all aspects of evolutionary theory, especially Darwinism, is secular propaganda; which, unfortunately, appears to have been widely accepted by both lay Catholics and the Catholic intelligentsia. This claim, however, is clearly false if one takes the time to read the papal encyclicals on the topic.
"Truth Cannot Contradict Truth", Pope John Paul II:
http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_jp02tc.htm
"In his encyclical Humani Generis (1950), my predecessor Pius XII had already stated that there was no opposition between evolution and the doctrine of the faith about man and his vocation, on condition that one did not lose sight of several indisputable points."
"The Church's magisterium is directly concerned with the question of evolution, for it involves the conception of man: Revelation teaches us that he was created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1:27-29)."
"...theories of evolution which, in accordance with the philosophies inspiring them, consider the spirit as emerging from the forces of living matter or as a mere epiphenomenon of this matter, are incompatible with the truth about man."
"The moment of transition to the spiritual cannot be the object of this kind of observation, which nevertheless can discover at the experimental level a series of very valuable signs indicating what is specific to the human being."
