What is the Vatican stance on UFO's?

Answer 1

The Traditional view held by the Vatican was that the UFO phenomena is demonic in origin.

However, this has changed quite a bit in recent times with many high profile Vatican representatives coming out and declaring publically that UFO's and, indeed, extraterrestrial life, does not in any way contradict the Catholic faith. Of, course, these people do not Offically speak on behalf of the Vatican or Roman Catholic Church but they do have High Official Status within the Church and speak with authority in such matters as well as showing the change of attitudes within the church to modern times.

Reverend Jose Gabriel Funes, the Vatican's Chief Astronomer has stated that ruling out extraterrestrial life would be like ''putting limits on God's creative freedom.'' Further he states that ''In my opinion this possiblity (of life on other planets) exists.'' ''How can we exclude that life has developed elsewhere.'' Funes says that dialogue between faith and science could be improved if scientists could learn more about The Bible and the Christians with modern scientific progress. Many Christians are at odds with the concept of extraterrestrial life and their vehicles based on Biblical interpretations, however, with the discovery of so many planets outside our Solar System it now seems the likelihood of intelligent life in the cosmos is vastly more abundant than previously thought.

Reverend Jose Gabriels Funes' credentials are impressive with a Master's Degree in Astronomy, Doctorate from the University of Padua in Italy, Bachelors Degree in Philosophy and a Bachelors Degree in Theology. He is an ordained Jesuit priest, current Director of the Vatican's Observatory and Scientific Advisor to Pope Benedict.

Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a Roman Catholic Theologian of the Vatican Curia (Governing Body), a close friend of the Pope and a demonologist expert from the Vatican has openly declared publically that extraterrestrial intelligences are a real phenomenon. Regarding his close study of metaphysical subjects over many years he states that during the 50's especially there was a tendency for scientists and clergymen to deny at all costs any involvement with Parapsychological studies among the public. This was reflected in UFOlogy, which was one of those frontier subjects. He stated, ''As I collected material , I realised that this generalised denial stemmed from illogical fanaticism. There must be something there, even if you just use your common sense, and, using reason, the phenomena is indeniable! Strict criticism goes against common sense because it goes against the value of human testimonies. In recent years, accounts of UFOlogical events have greatly increased and yet there are still too many people who tend to pass everything off as nonsense. Of course, in many cases, natural phenomena for example, may be wrongly interpreted, but it's absolutely unthinkable to put everything into that category. Total Scepticism is completely unjustified.''

The general concensus among strict orthodox Christians is that the UFO phenomenon is closely related to the occult and is therefore Satanic in nature, tending to steer people away from their belief in Christian Doctrine. This consensus is an arbitrary standard and not an offical sanction by the church.

In closing, this is not an easy question to answer, especially since the Vatican refuses to give an official statement. One might deduce from this that they themselves do not really know the answer!