Is Genesis literal or figurative?

[taniarose]

Hello!
Pls clarify in plain English. Were Adam and Eve actual persons and our physical first parents? My local Catholic school is teaching the elementary aged kids that Genesis uses figurative language and that Adam and Eve were not real. What is the Catholic position on this? (IF the school is correct, what then, is original sin?)
Thank you for your time!
Tania

[Fr. Vincent Serpa]

Hi,

This is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church has to say about this:

“The account of the fall in Genesis 3 uses figurative language, but affirms a primeval even, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man. Revelation gives us the certainty of faith that the whole human history is marked by the original fault freely committed by our first parents (#390).”

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.