A March 28 news piece on the Catholic World News site caught my eye: Vatican prefect, newspaper pay tribute to Teilhard de Chardin. The Rev. Teilhard de Chardin, S.J., was a controversial figure, an evolutionist philosopher and paleontologist whose bizarre ideas of the “Omega Point” were pantheistic and irrational, as well as heretical.

For a longer and more methodical assessment, please read the Critique of Fr. Teilhard de Chardin by Dr. Dietrich von Hildebrand.

It is a great consolation for me to know that my founder, Father Leonard Feeney, accused Teilhard of heresy to the very face of his famous French Jesuit confrere, who was then visiting the United States. When the local Jesuit Superior later told him, “Len, you can’t say that! He’s a very respected Jesuit,” Father Feeney replied that he had simply stated the truth, namely, that what the famed (and fraudulent) paleontologist had said was heresy.

There has been an effort in recent years to rehabilitate de Chardin, who still has many admirers and disciples, some evidently in very high places.

But, what would they rehabilitate him from? you ask. Good question. The July 13, 1962 French edition of L’Osservatore Romano (note the publication!) published a monitum (warning) of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (now the DDF), which read:

Certain works of Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, even posthumous works, are published and find no small favor.

Apart from the judgment as to what belongs to the field of the positive sciences, in matters of philosophy and theology, it is clearly manifested that the above-mentioned works contain such ambiguities and even such serious errors, that they offend Catholic doctrine.

Hence, the Fathers of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office exhort all Ordinaries and Superiors of religious institutes, rectors of seminaries and presidents of universities to defend the minds, especially those of the young, against the dangers of the works of Father Teilhard de Chardin and his disciples.

Given at Rome, in the Palace of the Holy Office, June 30, 1962.

— SEBASTIANUS MASALA Notarius

Below is an AI-generated summary of the Catholic World News article from March 28.¹

L’Osservatore Romano’s Glowing Coverage of Teilhard

L’Osservatore Romano dedicated two pages of its March 27, 2025 edition to Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), the French Jesuit philosopher and paleontologist, featuring six articles under the banner “Insights—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.” One headline dramatically described him as “a Moses of the 20th century.”

The Vatican newspaper’s coverage included an unsigned theological overview, an announcement of a new Vatican-published biography, Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça’s preface to the biography, an interview with a theology professor, announcements of commemorative events, and an interview with the biography’s author.

Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, praised Teilhard as “one of the most fascinating and complex figures of 20th-century thought” whose work “represents a bold attempt to integrate cosmic evolution with a spiritual vision of the universe.” The cardinal highlighted Teilhard’s “profound optimism” and “reflection on love as a cosmic force.”

Paolo Trianni, theology professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University, claimed Teilhard is “even still ahead of our time” and “the theologian of the outgoing Bergoglian Church.”

The articles referenced positive comments about Teilhard from multiple popes, including Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, despite the Holy Office’s 1962 warning against his writings.

Notably absent from the Vatican’s coverage was any mention of Teilhard’s controversial views on race and eugenics, which have faced increased scrutiny in the past decade. Dr. John Slattery has documented that Teilhard “unequivocally supported racist eugenic practices” and “praised the possibilities of the Nazi experiments.” This aspect of Teilhard’s thought has sparked ongoing academic debate, with articles published in America magazine and by Cambridge University Press examining these troubling elements of his legacy.

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Should readers like to access the articles and papers documenting Teilhard’s racist and eugenicist views, here are the last three paragraphs of the piece we just summarized, which has copious links:

In a 2018 article, Dr. Slattery wrote that Teilhard’s “legacy of eugenics and racism can’t be ignored.” Professor John Haught of Georgetown University responded with a 2019 article, “Trashing Teilhard”—to which Dr. Slattery responded with “Teilhard and Eugenics.”

Subsequent articles on the French Jesuit’s views on race and eugenics include “Teilhard de Chardin, racism and eugenics: An exchange,” published in 2023 by America, the Jesuit journal, and “The Extent and Impact of Racism and Eugenics in the Writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J.,” a 39-page article by Slattery published in 2024 by Cambridge University Press.

The latter article notes that Father Teilhard’s support for eugenics continued even after the Second World War and the Holocaust. In a 1951 work, “The Convergence of the Universe,” the French Jesuit wrote of “the urgent need for a generalized eugenics,” one “directed, beyond all concern with economic or nutritional problems, towards a biological maturing of the human type and of the biosphere” (p. 30). In a letter written to a Jesuit confrère that year, Teilhard called for the “Christification of Eugenics” (p. 31); that letter was part of a collection published in French in 1976 and in English in 1980.