During one of our comfirmation classes, our priest took a poll and asked our class how many of us “actually believed God created the universe in 6 days.” Not many of our class raised their hand when it was phrased like that.
To this, the priest replied “That’s alright, even Pope John Paul II didn’t believe that.”
JP2 signed a “letter” (really, an address, only he did not read it before the group) to the Pontificial Academy of Sciences in which he strongly endorses the Theory of Evolution as the best scientific explanation for the** physical** development of life. Souls, well, that’s different, that comes from God and that is not up to discussion Plus others of his writings show someone who accepts the predominant scientific teachings of his time. The RCC as an institution has accepted “deep time” and that the 6 days of Genesis are allegorical, for quite some time. Not much over a century after the Galileo case, the Church had done a near complete turnaround in the science v. scripture debate. However, it seems many people weren’t paying attention (including quite a few conservative Catholics in the US).
Why would you think it wouldn’t be? Despite the linkage of religiousness and creationism in the popular mind, none of the major christian churches (catholic, presbyterian, uniting, anglican, methodist, lutheran etc etc) believes the biblical creation story is a literal account (I’m sure some varieties of baptist do and some don’t but I’ve no idea of the mix).