Vatican newspaper rejects science behind intelligent design.(CHURCH NOTES)

VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican recently clarified its position in the intelligent design debate, publishing an article in its official newspaper that dismisses the theory on scientific grounds.

In the Jan. 17 edition of L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican directly reaffirmed Catholic support for the science behind Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, according to the Religion News Service. Intelligent design is a theory that says observation of life forms reveals they are so complex, they could only be the product of a designer.

Fiorenzo Facchini, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Bologna, Italy, contended in an editorial that proponents …