The Pope and the Scientists

I know that the death of the Pope is not news any more, but there is something I would like to comment:
Pope praised for partial conciliation of science and religion [Nature 434, 684 (07 April 2005)]

Catholic researchers and bioethicists have responded to the death of Pope John Paul II with tributes to his efforts to achieve reconciliation between faith and science. And some are optimistic that his successor will keep on the same path.

Maybe the catholic ones are happy about that, but others aren't that happy, including me and those who defend the use of embryonic stem cells in scientific research:

The Polish Pope had a strong personal interest in science and worked to reduce hostility between the scientific community and the Roman Catholic Church. Nonetheless, his strict rejection of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research and contraception, including the distribution of condoms to help contain AIDS, drew him into conflict with some scientists.

Others have told much and in length about the absurdity of his position concerning AIDS and contraception, but I have the feeling that in this issue they will, in the future, recognise that they were wrong. Of course it will be when it won't matter any more and will not help fighting AIDS now. If it took more than 400 years to acknowledge their wrong doing with Galileo's affaire...

In 1980 at Cologne Cathedral, Germany, John Paul declared that there was "no contradiction" between faith and science. He said on several occasions that the concepts of the Big Bang and darwinian evolution were more than mere hypotheses. In 1992, he officially rehabilitated Galileo Galilei, conceding that the Church was wrong to arrest him.

I would like to call your attention to the sentences in bold letters. There might not be a contradiction, but the use of 'mere' referring to two scientific hypothesis sounds pretty despective to me. Maybe they don't know that scientific hypothesis are something very different from 'mere' hypothesis, as for example, any god's existence.

Of course faith and science are compatible. As far as faith doesn't oppose scientifically well stablished facts... Not doing so, that what creationists do, is mere stupidity.