Were Adam and Eve real people?

Yes. The Catholic Church teaches that Adam and Eve were real first parents and that the fall was a real event. Genesis uses symbolic and figurative language, but it does not describe a mere fable.

What Genesis teaches. Genesis 2 and 3 reveal that God created the first human beings in friendship with Him, gave them freedom, and commanded them not to grasp at moral autonomy. Tempted by the serpent, they disobeyed God (Gen 2:16-17; 3:1-19). The Catechism says the account employs figurative language while affirming "a primeval event, a deed that took place at the beginning of the history of man" (CCC 390).

Why their historicity matters. St. Paul presents Adam as one man whose sin brought death into the world, and Christ as the new Adam whose obedience brings life (Rom 5:12-19; 1 Cor 15:21-22). Original sin is a fallen condition transmitted to Adam's descendants, not merely the bad example of earlier generations (CCC 402-404). If there were no real original disobedience by humanity's first parents, Paul's teaching about the fall and Christ's saving work would be seriously distorted.

What Catholics may believe about evolution. The Church does not require a literalistic reading in which every detail of Genesis functions as modern science. Catholics may accept scientific evidence concerning the development of the human body, provided they hold that every spiritual soul is created directly by God (CCC 366). Pope Pius XII permitted research and discussion concerning human evolution while insisting that faith's revealed truths must be preserved in full, including humanity's origin and fall.

What remains unsettled. The Church has not defined the age of the earth, the biological appearance of Adam and Eve, or the scientific mechanisms surrounding human origins. It has rejected the idea that Adam is only a symbol for an unspecified group and has taught that humanity shares a real unity of origin. Humani Generis warned against theories of polygenism that could not be reconciled with the doctrine of original sin.

Read Genesis 2 and 3 together with Romans 5. Genesis explains why humanity needs redemption, and Romans shows why Jesus Christ is the new Adam who restores what sin wounded.