Pope's Astronomer Believes In Extra-Terrestrial Life: Pope Says Martians Will Be Welcome To The Church
The Pope's astronomer and the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, believes in life beyond Earth. He said that he would be pleased to baptise the extra-terrestrials from beyond the stars.
He is the keeper of the Pope's meteorite collection and he released a new booklet called 'Would You Baptise an Extraterrestrial?', reported by the Web site, Metro. He also holds two planetary science degrees and has gone on to study meteorites and asteroids. He was with the Vatican Observatory since 1993.
He said that there was no conflict between religion and science and that the two fields complemented each other. He explained that the religious questions was handled by science.
Consolmagno said that no matter how many tentacles an alien has, it still has a soul. He also went on to say that he would baptise the aliens only if they asked him to.
The astronomer said that it wasn't disproving to the existence of God to find ET. He hoped that the discovery of aliens will make people question what being a human actually means.
He added that it was only a matter of time before aliens were discovered. He believed that the discovery will result in questions about the relationship with God to those beings outside the Earth. He continued that the public will react to aliens the same way as they did when news of other planets orbiting far off stars came out in the 90s.
On May 9, Pope Francis had said when Martians are found, they would be welcome it into the Church, reported Christian Post. During a mass at the Vatican, he had spoken about alien forms and said that if they did come to Earth they would be welcomed to be baptised. His speech was focused on the question "Who are we to close the doors to the Holy Spirit?"
According to Vatican Radio, he said, "If -- for example -- tomorrow an expedition of Martians came and some of them came to us, here ... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children painted them ... And one says, 'But I want to be baptised!' What would happen?" He explained that baptism was open to everybody.