After watching the news on his magic wordy picture box, the Pope has confirmed that Dr Craig Venter is a witch.
Dr Venter has spent the last ten years and £40 million of his own fortune in pursuit of creating synthetic life and on 20 May it was announced that he and his team had 'built the genome of a bacterium from scratch and incorporated it into a cell to make what they call the world's first synthetic life form'.
The announcement of this breakthrough has met with stern reactions across religious communities, with Venter being accused of 'playing God' in his quest to improve quality of life by feeding the starving, creating vaccines and lowering carbon dioxide levels on behalf of his fellow man.
A spokesperson from the centre for rational thought said "Obviously if there is a God, it is part of his plan so religious folk need not worry,
"It seems hypocritical to condemn scientific progress and then still exploit other older advances such as matches for lighting churchy candles and popemobiles for mobilising popes when it is convenient"
The advances Dr Venter and his team have made on behalf of mankind continue to be the subject of much debate around the world.
God was unavailable for comment.