Dear MJD;

I am always amused and saddened when I read reports from the media that so-and-so Vatican "official" said something that was actually only a personal and private opinion making it sound like a statement from the Vatican itself, or that it is somehow significant. Just because someone works at the Vatican does not mean they represent the Vatican, nor does his employment give the person's opinion automatic significance or, for that matter, even veracity.

Because the media takes any opinion blathered by an employee of the Vatican as major news and even as if coming from the Vatican itself, it behooves employees of the Vatican to watch their words and consider the effect their opinions will have on people after the media finishes twisting it.

Monsignor Balducci's unfounded opinions about contact with extraterrestrials were his opinions given in his private capacity and not as representing the Vatican. I say that his opinions on this are unfounded because there is not a single shred of scientific or archaeological evidence that extraterrestrials ever visited the earth. It was irresponsible of him to express his opinions publicly.

Reported contacts with extraterrestrials can easily be explained by natural phenomena that may effect a person's perception and psychology, even to the point of hallucinations, or with direct psychological aberrations. Many of the details of alleged contacts can suggest even a demonic encounter. But, one thing is clear -- there is no evidence of any extraterrestrial visiting the earth. Opinion without some sort of credible evidence is irresponsible.

On a different issue -- is there intelligent life on other planets? -- That question is credible. Given the vastness of the universe it makes sense that other intelligent life may exist somewhere. Contrary to some ill-educated people, the existence of intelligent life on other planets does not threaten Christian doctrine, belief, or practice in any way whatsoever.

Last November the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences conducted a conference on astrobiology. One of the topics was the detection and implications of extraterrestrial life. The Director of the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit priest Father Jose Gabriel Funes, a participant in the conference told the Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano newspaper in May 2008 that the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials posed no problems to Catholic theology. This is certainly true.

Not everyone agrees. Paul Davies, theoretical physicist and cosmologist from Arizona State University, one of the speakers at the Vatican event, told the Washington Post: "I think the discovery of a second genesis would be of enormous spiritual significance. The real threat would come from the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, because if there are beings elsewhere in the universe, then Christians, they're in this horrible bind. They believe that God became incarnate in the form of Jesus Christ in order to save humankind, not dolphins or chimpanzees or little green men on other planets."
 
Dr. Davies is making the same mistake Galileo made -- trying to play theologian. He needs to stick to his physics. He is not qualified to make theological statements.
 
The article from the Honolulu Examiner is the best report on the conference that I found.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary