This would seem to contradict what is presented in the Catechism, which says, as a result of this first bad choice, "Harmony with creation is broken; visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject “to its bondage to decay.” and “Death makes it’s entrance into human history” Catechism ¶400.
It seems to be clearly indicating a physical condition that now occurs to humanity and to all creation as well.
SNP,
There is a danger in focusing on specific passages of the Catechism (or an body of work for that matter) to the exclusion of others, because you might end up getting the wrong impression.
The Church does not teach that before the primordial sin there was NO death. The Church teaches that before the primordial sin man was
not subject to death due to a preternatural gift given by God. In fact,implicit in the doctrine of the preternatural gift of immortality, is the notion that man, being partly made of matter, would naturally wear out and decompose.
There is no indication that other forms of matter did not wear out, decompose, change, or, in the case of animals: die.
For instance here is another passage from the Catechism. Paragraph 310:
But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world “in a state of journeying” towards its ultimate perfection. In God’s plan this process of becoming involves the appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive forces of nature. With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection.
Note that “physical evil” is a term of art which denotes the privation of a due good. Hence losing my arm is a physical evil, since in the normal course of things I am constituted in my nature to have two arms. We must be careful not to attribute to the concept of “physical evil” the perjorative value of “evil” that we are used to when thinking about “moral evil.”
So, from the Catechism passage above, we see the possibility that pre-fallen creation could by Divine providence incorporate certain physical evils into the plan of progressive perfection. But note, too, that strictly speaking the death of an animal can be considered a physical evil in one sense and not in another sense. In one sense the death is the privation of the life-principle which due to the animal since it has “animate and sensate soul”. But in another sense the death of an animal (even man) is not a physical evil because matter is so constitued by nature as to be transitory and subject to decomposition.
What is absolutely abhorent (and a clear physical evil) is the separation of the the soul from the body in man, because we are consituted as a whole being (a body and soul composite), such that our “person” is inextricably described by both body and soul. Even though our material part should be subject to decay, and eventually death, it was fitting that we were given the preternatural gift of immortality to preserve our integral nature.
VC
P.S.
As an aside, it has been noted before that the Genesis account regarding the fall contains an interesting tidbit that has implications in your discussion of death. God’s warning not to eat the fruit “lest ye die” and the serpents contradiction of that seems nonsensical if there was no death in the world for our first parents to have observed. In my opinion this is not really an “argument” just an interesting observation and implication. I think one could argue that the preternatural gift of infused knowledge possesed by our first parents would allow them to comprehend death even if there were no current examples of it.
