A Jesuit Astronomer And Those "Little Green Men"

Vatican says little green men are part of Creation Richard Owen in Rome

The Vatican's chief astronomer has said that belief in aliens is not at variance with Christianity and that any extra terrestrials would form "part of God's Creation". Father Jose Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit, yesterday told L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, that "It is possible to believe in God and in extra-terrestrials".

He said Christians could "admit the existence of other worlds and other forms of life, even those more evolved than ours, without necessarily questioning faith in the Creation, the incarnation and the redemption of mankind".

Father Funes, head of the Vatican Observatory, or Specola, said although many astronomers "lost no opportunity" publicly to profess their atheism, it was "a myth that astronomy favours an atheistic vision of the world". He said astronomy "does not favour the view of a Godless world. In fact, I think it is those who work at the Specola who bear witness to the fact that it is possible to believe in God and work with science in a serious way".
He said that the Observatory, formerly housed at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence in the hills south of Rome, would inaugurate its new headquarters in a monastery in nearby Albano next year. The Vatican Observatory also operates a 1.8 metre telescope at Mount Graham in Arizona in the United States.

Father Funes said that just as there existed a "multiplicity of creatures on Earth", so there could exist "other beings created by God, including intelligent ones. We cannot place limits on God's creative freedom."

St Francis of Assisi had described our fellow creatures on Earth as our brothers and sisters, "so why can we not also speak of our extra terrestrial brothers? They too would be part of Creation". He said that aliens, like humans, would be able to benefit from the redemption offered by Jesus Christ and "the mercy of God".

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