Owen K Waters – These days, the Vatican says that it’s OK to believe in extra-terrestrial aliens. The Vatican is not the only bastion of conservatism to have come out with such a policy in recent years. Both the British and the French governments have now released their extensive files on sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects.
Governments have been shy of talking about UFOs ever since the national panic that Orson Welles caused in America in 1938 when he read out an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel, ‘The War of the Worlds’ over the radio. The broadcast lasted 60 minutes without commercial interruption and was formatted as a series of news broadcasts about the progress of an ongoing alien invasion of Earth.
People who tuned into the radio show after the initial announcement about it being fictional were swept up into a panic that quickly spread across the country. The drama hit such a public nerve in those tense and anxious days leading up to World War II that millions of listeners became panic-stricken. The fallout in the press was enormous, with 12,500 newspaper articles appearing about this episode over the next month.
For decades since then, the fear of public panic in the face of a potential mass alien landing has helped to keep governments quiet about UFO incidents. There was also the nagging fear in the minds of politicians that, if extra-terrestrials landed and spoke words of wisdom, people might start following the ETs instead of the politicians. That fear has since been largely eclipsed by the fact that, today, very few people listen to politicians anyway!
In the Vatican newspaper, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. So, he said, believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God.
“How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?” Funes said. “Just as we consider earthly creatures as ‘a brother,’ and ‘sister,’ why should we not talk about an ‘extraterrestrial brother’? It would still be part of Creation.”
In the interview for the newspaper article, Funes said that such a notion “doesn’t contradict our faith” because aliens would still be God’s creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like “putting limits” on God’s creative freedom.
Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of the (2005-13) Pope, Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy. The Vatican Observatory has made great efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. It was founded in 1891 and is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome. The Vatican Observatory also has a team which conducts research at the University of Arizona observatory in Tucson.
Funes went on to say that the Bible “is not a science book,” adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most “reasonable” explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter. But, he said, such a beginning to the universe would have been the work of God as “God is the creator of the universe and we are not the result of chance.”
Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo’s persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has “caused wounds.” In 1633, the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. Galileo was imprisoned, and later released to spend his final years under house arrest.
“The church has somehow recognized its mistakes,” he said. “Maybe it could have done it better, but now it’s time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration.” Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from “tragic mutual incomprehension.”
From this recent news article, it would seem that the Vatican is now bridging the gap between science and religion in an attempt to become aligned with the wider view of reality presented by modern scientific knowledge. Where this will eventually lead is anyone’s guess, but an evolving consciousness in humanity makes plenty of room for the potential for philosophical reform in traditional areas.
It is heartening to see that, today, the times certainly are a-changing.
SF Source Spiritual Dynamics May 2016
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The broadcast of “war of the worlds” was fear-based and meant to be scary. No once during the actual broadcast did they stop to announce that it was a reenactment and fiction. Imagine the difference if the broadcast had announced that benevolent ETs had landed to greet humanity and help us. For people to say that humanity would panic at ET landings because of past experience with WOTW is misguided and inaccurate. You will have some people that will panic because their paradigm and religious beliefs will be turned upside down but for myself and I suspect most people, I would be happy and relieved.
“…..but for myself and I suspect most people, I would be happy and relieved.”
Ditto, Kevin. This article bothers me with respect to “…. that the Vatican is now bridging the gap between science and religion in an attempt to become aligned with the wider view of reality presented by modern scientific knowledge.” Seems to me that when we hear that the Vatican has thoroughly investigated and brought to the attention of the world the pedophelia that is rampant within its church, maybe then ‘most people’ might take seriously their attempt to bridge a gap, any gap! Unfortunately, it’s not possible for many to overcome the hurdle of a child molesting church, so it may be that the ‘bridge’ of ET life is a diversion. B.
I agree Barbara. How can anyone take anything the Vatican says seriously until they face up to their own vile crimes? Historically, the Vatican’s relationship with science has been singularly one of control by criminalizing anyone who questions the existing dogma, forcing followers to believe it via excommunication, and refusing to open their vast museums and hidden knowledge to the world. The Vatican also has the same problem politicians do… friendly ET’s offering wisdom and knowledge will undoubtedly contradict and unravel the church’s dogmatic control tenets, so it’s imperative (in their minds) to control the conversation before the inevitable can no longer be denied. There is also the probability (certainty, really) that the Vatican is acting as the front man for the globalists dialectic plan of using aliens to scare the world into begging to be protected against the threat of annihilation. They have to awaken the sleeping masses incrementally though, so as not to scare them to death, so they use Jesuits like Funes to tiptoe ET through the tulips. Pretending to call this “science” is a deception, but believers have a long, sordid history of lapping this stuff up without question.
I agree with all your comments.
That said, the Vatican brainwashing concerning fear of the afterlife has a TREMENDOUS hold on many Catholics, especially those who profess to be sincere followers of the Church. That lot will cling to whatever rot the church says and WILL BE influenced by Vatican “pronouncements,” as sad as that truly is.
And here is a truly frightening comment off Google “There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America – but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years.”
So Latin America and Africa are likely to go along with the church without any concern (or knowledge) of the really filthy underpinnings embedded for centuries and revealed in the sick sexual practices within the modern priest class. – g
Great discussion. Thanks your sharing your opinions. -g
Yes the church did not want Galileo questioning their authority that the earth was the center of the universe. They threatened Galileo with death to recant his findings and he went into seclusion. This was all done to continue the chruch’s control over the population who were mostly uneducated and relied on religion to guide them in controlling a relationship with God as the ultimate goal in life. The church had a relationship with the rulers of the time to keep all the control factors in place to keep the labor force functioning for the benefit of the royal masters.
Similar to today, where mankind is being denied acknowledgement of intelligent life and space travelers for the benefit of the few government powers that is using this information to their benefit and keeping the population in the dark as if this important relationship does not exist and we continue unknowingly live in a bubble of illusion apart from the real reality.
Believe me, the church is well aware through their many sources that space visitors are a reality, and they are slowly acknowledging this fact with the pronoucement of accepting the possibility of intelligent life out there.
We have been programed by government to resist looking for UFO and other indications of intelligent life under the threat that looking for them would question one’s mental status and nobody wants to be looked upon as unbalanced, so many just avoid the subject because it does not fit into what they have been told as an absolute truth by church and government.
For investigators there are tons of sources on the web. (educatinghumanity.com) is one that can lead to many others.