Until recently, the accumulated wisdom of the Roman Catholic Church held that only supernatural entities such as God, Jesus and Mary, angels or demons produced signs in the heavens. However, in the last several years, a new view has been quietly put forth, one that could foreshadow as revolutionary a change as that initiated by Copernicus.
Monsignor Corrado Balducci, a recently-retired theologian who specialized in demonology and exorcism for the Vatican, has appeared on Italian TV several times declaring that contact with extraterrestrials is real. He has stated these entities “are NOT demonic, they are NOT due to psychological impairment, they are NOT a case of entity attachment, but these encounters deserve to be studied carefully.” (Emphasis in original.)
“Their existence can no longer be denied, for there is too much evidence for the existence of extra-terrestrials and flying saucers.” UFOs indicate that they might be more evolved than humanity, but would not challenge the core of Christianity, for Christ is still king of the universe. “This means that everything in the universe, including extra-terrestrials and UFOs are reconcilable with God.”
Since then, he has tried to calm the furor and spike the rumors floating around the Internet. According to one source, he claims there is no “secret Vatican commission on ET contact” studying the problem (though another says he privately admits to a pontifical MJ12), and that Holy See’s embassies and nuncios do not collect information on contacts. He has said he is not studying the subject, nor that he spoke for the Vatican. His more recent statements emphasize a lot of “ifs” like “IF THEY EXIST and IF WE EVER MAKE CONTACT with them, they MIGHT well be beings superior to us as of spirituality. IF THAT IS TRUE, a contact might even be desirable for us.” (Emphasis in original)Yet even so, he has cordially met with noted researcher Michael Hesemann, author/abductee Whitley Strieber, who has included an interview with him in his new book, Confirmation, and even Zecharia Sitchin, a scholar who believes humanity was created by an alien race, thought by the Sumerians to be gods, as their slaves.
It is gratifying that four centuries after burning Giordano Bruno for impudently suggesting that the stars around us were solar systems peopled with living worlds, the Roman Church has finally seen fit to admit the possibility, at least tacitly. Still the question must be raised: Why? Does the Catholic Church possess new information, or is this positioning just in case there ever is a landing? And why is it being discussed now, by a demonologist who, according to one report, worked for the Congregation for the Propagation of the Doctrine of the Faith, which used to be called the Holy Office of the Inquisition?
If an advanced race does land on Earth, they could easily be taken as divine messengers. After all, if they are older and unimaginably technologically more sophisticated than we are, then perhaps they are more spiritually advanced as well (whatever that means). They might even claim to be so, with or without any justification. Combined with magical-seeming powers, their “revelations” and starry wisdom would doubtless be eagerly devoured by uncritical Earthlings, who will have no way of knowing what the visitors say is objectively true or just a yarn to con us gullible natives. Judging by our own sad history of contact between different cultures by frauds, fanatics, conquistadors and missionaries, the outlook for any human religion is grim indeed.
Even if the aliens’ message is all sweetness and light, it will inevitably be colored by their otherworldly perceptions and psychology, intentions and agendas. But any alien belief is especially dangerous for any faith such as the Roman Catholic Church that proudly claims to the sole custodian and arbiter of revealed truth. For even if the aliens’ intentions are totally benign, even if they do not directly contradict the teachings of Christianity, the new knowledge will probably have devastating and unpredictable effects. What will become of the authority of the priests if a new authority comes along with a superior brand of truth?
It’s happened to the Church before. As world religions go, Christianity in general has had a less than glorious track record overall in accepting new ideas. Fundamentalists, with their bedrock belief in the inerrancy of the Bible and the absolute historicity of the Old Testament, in particular have problems with this. The antiquated scholastic theology that the Roman Catholic Church still stubbornly clings to has likewise never really recovered from the pummeling it received from Darwin and Copernicus either.
This has caused a spit between faith and reason, a profound kind of schizophrenia in the Western spirit that leaves both soul and intellect unfulfilled. Worse, this disconnection now threatens the very viability of our civilization. Yet, it is precisely those questions of human origins and our place in the cosmos where extraterrestrial contact may radically challenge our most closely held beliefs.
Many Christians, especially fundamentalists, regard UFOs and aliens as demons in disguise, out to deceive the children of God in these last days. Websites such as Watcher Website offer ominous warnings against the visitors from the sky. They vigorously reject any truck with aliens, and there is much to be said for their interpretation. But its inclusiveness, reassuring to those with a traditional outlook, the opposite of the New Age wide-open welcome of all from beyond is also dangerous. For as we shall see, good things can come from the sky as well.
We must practice discernment above all. In this context, it is even more interesting that a Catholic theologian says they are not demons. Balducci is a professional demonologist, backed by all the expertise dealing with occult phenomena developed by pastors, theologians and exorcists. He uses their technical terminology in discussing his conclusions. But if UFOs are not evil spirits, manifestations of insanity, or “entity attachments,” what are they? Angels?
As disembodied spiritual beings, could not angels be safely ruled out, seeing that some of these damned things leave physical traces? Also, angels are supposedly much more concerned about humanity’s welfare than most of the UFOnauts that encounter people seem to be. In the New Testament, for instance, the first words angels always seem to say is “Fear not.” There are certain contactee cases with very human-looking beings where this also has happened, but whether the physically active angels in the Bible were aliens will be discussed in the next section.
But if they’re not demons or angels, and since Catholicism leaves little theoretical room for “neutral” spirits, perhaps what Balducci is getting at is that these entities are physical beings, with bodies of some kind. His other statements about other “children of God” in the cosmos definitely imply that.
It is a cosmic gamble for anybody, especially the Church, to make dogmatic pronouncements about visitors from outer space at this time. Maybe the monsignor is simply covering Rome’s bets. But his statements represent both an opportunity and a danger. The stakes are incalculably high. At risk is nothing less than the future of the human soul. If the Church guesses wrong about these visitors from beyond, it could not only lose all credibility but could even imperil the survival of the human race.
After all, great civilizations have been destroyed on just such an issue. The fall of the Aztec Empire in the early sixteenth century is a perfect example.
The god-king Montezuma believed his priestly experts’ interpretations of prophecy and signs seen in the heavens, and was amazed by the unmatchable technology of steel, guns, and horses wielded by his visitors. Imagine how history would be different if he knew from the start that Cortez was not the divine Quetzalcoatl returned to his people, but just a foreign marauder intent on despoiling his realm. Yet, despite his own misgivings, Montezuma reluctantly welcomed the conquistadors as divine messengers. It was a fatal mistake for him and his empire and all Mexico. Almost the identical scenario was played out in the Incan capital in South America by other conquistadors a few decades later, dooming Andean civilizations as well.
Whether this mistake could happen to us depends on the strange connections between spirituality and the sky that lurk in the soul’s most profound depths. Upon that mystery, most human religions seem to have been founded — including Judaism and Christianity. For Christians, the burning question posed at this juncture is not just whether Yahweh is an extraterrestrial, but is his Son? Is Jesus an ET? And if so what does it mean?
Previous —In Praise of Folly
Next — Messengers from Heaven Part II: Angels or Aliens?
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