As a nonpracticing, cultural Catholic, I'm under the impression that the official stance of the church actually encourages a reading of the Old Testament allegorically rather than literally; at least, that's what I've learned at my more liberal-leaning religious courses I've taken at a Catholic university.

I'm glad to see Pope Francis reaffirming this, though. Problem with such a large institution, religious or not, is that not everyone's always in the loop about these sorts of things. I imagine there are plenty of Catholics who mistakenly believe in full-on Creationism.