PROMOTION OF EVOLUTION
CCC, 283: ...scientific studies...have splendidly enriched our knowledge of the development of life-forms and the appearance of man.
To speak of the "development of life-forms" and scientific studies surrounding the "appearance of man" is unquestionably to speak of evolution - and to speak of enriching our knowledge of evolution is undeniably to imply that evolution is a fact, since knowledge is of truth, not error. The Catechism thus treats evolution as factual and certain. This approach to evolution, however, was condemned by Pope Pius XII in Humani Generis (36):
Some however rashly transgress this liberty of discussion, when they act as if the origin of the human body from pre-existing and living matter were already completely certain and proved by the fact...and as if there were nothing in the sources of divine revelation which demands the greatest moderation and caution in this question.
This passage in the Catechism is, then, at minimum a rash transgression.
That quote from Humani Generis does not establish that evolution is heresy, or even incorrect. It merely states that "the greatest moderation and caution" should be used before it is accepted within the church." The symposium recognizes the fact that "Put crudely, the widely accepted scientific worldview is that human beings or any other product of evolutionary diversification is accidental and, by implication, incidental." The symposium is assuming evolution for the purpose of determining whether evolution necessitates such an atheistic world view.
The plain purpose, then, of assuming evolution is not to recognize that evolution is fact, but rather to examine evolution as it presently understood by biologists. So what the symposium is doing is actually fully in line with the excerpt from Humani Generis: It is trying to separate the necessary implications of evolution from among those present presumptions which pit evolution against God. Presumably, if this effort fails, than the Church would do something that the excerpt does not: condemn evolution, and formulate a response, an alternate explanation to account for the observations of biologists. If it succeeds, than the Church presumably would try to reconcile evolution to divine revelation.
Keep this is mind: A symposium was held on the Big Bang. The Pope discussed his understandings with Steven Hawkins. Steven Hawkins wrote that the Pope showed a masterful understanding of the Physics involved. So when the Pope asserted that the Big Bang actually confirmed the teachings of the Catholic Church, Hawkins, a devoted atheist, was alarmed so gravely that he has devoted every moment of his research since to promoting theories which are contradictory to the Big Bang, and which are shown to be in contradiction to observation at every turn.