The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1922-09-09
"The Creation of Man," the thirteenth
sermon of a series, was prepared by
the Rev. James Franchi, of Plains,
Mont.
"THE CREATION OF MAN."

"THE CREATION OF MAN"
In the preceding instructions we.
have treated the creation of the phy-
steal world, and the creation OF the
angels, the spirit world. Today we
shall consider the creation OF man,
the link connecting the physical and
the spiritual world. BY his body man
belongs to the world of matter; by
his soul he is part of the spirit world.
iThe body is the earthly habitation OF
the soul. The soul is the life of the
body. Take away the soul and the
body turns into dust. The soul is the
guide of the body, as is the driver of
his steed or the captain of his ship.
The body is a good servant of the
soul, but a bad master.
AS Recorded in Genesis.
Moses gave the Jews a positive
history of creation in the book OF
Genesis, written under the inspira-
ton of God: God said: Let us make
man to our image and likeness, and
let him have dominion over the fishes
of the sea and the fowls of the air,
and the beasts, and the whole earth,
and every creeping creature that
moyeth upon the earth. -. The Lord
God formed man of the slime of the
earth, and breathed into his face the
breath of life and man became Nv
ing soul The Lord God said:
1t is not good for man to be alone;
II
himself. $500. Then the Lord God
cast a deep sleep upon Adam, and
when he was fast asleep. He took
one of his ribs, and. built the rib
5000. into a woman, and brought her
to- Adam. And Adam said: This now
is bone of my bone, and flesh OF my
flesh, she shall be called woman, be-
cause she was taken out of man. -.
And Adam called the name of his
wife Eve, because she was the mother
of all the living. &c.. And God blessed
them saying: Increase and multiply
and fill the earth, and subdue it, and
rule over the fishes of the sea, and
the fowls of the air, and all living
creatures that move upon the earth
Gen. 1925; HI, IS, 21-23, vi:2O, I, 2S.)
These words of holy writ declare
rot only in general way that man
was created by God, but describe in
detail the formation of the body of
Adam from the slime Of the earth
and of the body of Eve from rib
taken from Adam. Again, scripture
attributes the creation of the soul to
the immediate action of God-God
"breathed into his face the breath of
life and man became living soul"
Evolution Theory UntenabIe.
Notwithstanding this plain and di-
rect statement of the Bible, Charles
Darwin and E. Haeckel and their
followers believe man to have been
evolved from the animal kingdom and
to be descendant Of a collateral line
of apes. This opinion is based on the
theory Of absolute evolution which is
opposed not less to faith than to
reason. For it cOntradicts the OBJ
yious sense of scripture and the con-
slant teaching of the Church, and it
supposes the eternity of matter, spon-
taneous generation, and the evolu-
ton Of species by blind chance, which
three theories are equally untenable.
Line Not Back to Ape.
Mivart maintained that at least
the human body was formed by evolu-
ton from lower animals, and that
God made man by breathing a soul
into the body of one of the lower
animals, the ape. But all attempts
to prove this theory have failed SO
far. The difference between man and
the ape is far greater than appears
at first sight Man has a long period
Of growth and gradual development
Of his faculties; the ape shoots up
very quickly to full development. The.
ape lives only about 80 years, whilst
man frequently attains the age of so
or even 100 years. Mans organs are
SO arranged that he is essentially
walker, while the apes organs make
him a climber. AS A. de Quatrefages
asserts, "A walking animal cannot be
descended from a climbing one The
facial angle of mammals varies from
TO to 45 degrees, but in man it is at
least IS degrees. The average weight
of an apes brain is 13 ounces, whilst
mans brain weighs 35 ounces, the
weight of the brain to the body be-
ing as one to 20 in an ape, and as one
to So in man. After birth the human
brain grows 1000 cubic centimetres,
and that of the gorilla ape only six
cubic centimetres. AS Platz asserts,