He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a "kind of paganism" because it harked back to the days of "nature gods" who were responsible for natural events.

Brother Consolmagno argued that the Christian God was a supernatural one, a belief that had led the clergy in the past to become involved in science to seek natural reasons for phenomena such as thunder and lightning, which had been previously attributed to vengeful gods. "Knowledge is dangerous, but so is ignorance. That's why science and religion need to talk to each other," he said.

"Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism - it's turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do."

"Creationism is paganism" seems to be a kind of soundbite way of referring to what Aquinas meant when he wrote that "Creatio non est mutatio"--creation isn't change; God's creation is "ex nihilio," from nothing, and God is the immediate, intimate cause of the being of everything. This is explained very competently at the other link, which elaborates:

God does not act on nature the way a human being might act on an artifact to change it.  Rather, God causes natural beings to be in such a way that they work the way they do.  Hippopotamuses give live birth because that is the sort of thing they are.  Why are there such things as Hippopotamuses?  Well, nature produced them in some way.  What way did nature produce them and why does nature produce things in this way?  It is because God made the whole of nature to operate in this way and produce by her own agency what she produces.  Thus, God remains completely responsible for the being and operation of everything, even though natural beings possess real agency according to the way they were created.