A reconciliation with Darwin? : Erich Wasmann and Jaime Pujiula's divergent views on evolutionism: biologists and jesuits

Unlike the case of Galileo, the Catholic Church has managed evolutionism and Charles Darwin?s work with discretion. Among Catholic scientists, some defend a variety of evolutionism which is peppered with remarkable exceptions, such as the divine origin of life and of the human species. The Jesuit entomologist Erich Wasmann came to the conclusion that the evolutionary theory could explain his observations about myrmecophiles, so he adopted a Catholicism-tinged evolutionism, which Ernst Haeckel considered false and very dangerous. The Jesuit biologist from Catalonia, Jaime Pujiula, continued Wasmann?s work but adopted stances that were more radical than the Austrian entomologist?s, like invoking the inescapable need for God?s intervention in the transition from inert matter to life.