The Catholic Church holds a nuanced reading of Genesis 1:1-2, affirming that 'In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth' establishes the principle of divine creation while remaining compatible with theistic evolution and the operation of natural secondary causes. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (§§ 283-289) teaches that God is the creator of all that exists, but does not specify the precise mechanisms or timeline of creation. Pope John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae (1995) explicitly affirmed that theistic evolution does not contradict Catholic faith, provided that the human soul is understood as divinely created.

Catholic theology distinguishes between the 'that' of creation (that God created) and the 'how' of creation (the mechanisms by which creation occurred). Genesis is interpreted as theological truth (God created all things) rather than as a scientific description of mechanisms or chronology. The magisterium has permitted Catholic scientists and theologians to pursue evolutionary theory while maintaining theological commitment to divine creation and the special creation of the human soul.