It’s interesting how catholicism is both monotheist and polytheist in a sense, there’s only one god but you still pray to all those saints to act on God’s behalf. There are so many “pagan” rites and beliefs that got somehow absorbed into the faith over time, it’s truly an amalgam of old Indo-European religions.
Also to your second point, I’m pretty sure they meant that Genesis is poetical symbolism as opposed to a literal historical account, which seems to be what most denominations nowadays that aren’t completely cuckoo crazy agree on, the Catholic church included.