The Vatican And UFOs
Written by Christopher Sharp - 20 January 2022
The Vatican does not have an official position on ET life or any potential ET presence on Earth.
However, that may change, as we could be about to witness the confirmation of non-terrestrial intelligence residing on Earth.
Since 2002, an Italian think tank has held six conferences at the Vatican about the prospect of non-human intelligence.
In 2020, the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square Nativity decorations included a figure of what appeared to be an astronaut, in a spacesuit, gripping the moon in their hands.
In a recent article, Vatican astronomer Christopher Graney, mocked UAP, comparing the phenomena to mermaids.
Such tactics are reminiscent of those used against Galileo.
The Vatican refers to UAP as Unexplained Flying Things or ‘Res Inexplicatae Volantes’.
In 1961, it was alleged that Pope John XXIII encountered an ‘alien’ at his summer palace.
Vatican City, by Christopher Czermak on Unsplash
Historian Tom Holland once wrote:
“Christianity’s enduring impact is not confined to churches. It can be seen everywhere in the West: in science, in secularism, in gay rights, even in atheism.”
Christian values are the moral fish tank that many within Western society swim within.
The dominion of Christendom has been the bedrock of western civilization since the golden era of Rome’s Caesars.
Although Christianity has splintered since its foundation, its heart remains within Rome and the Vatican - the resting place of its first Pope, St Peter, also the first disciple to witness Jesus appear after his crucifixion.
From Vatican City, the Pope leads around 1.2 billion Catholics, making up a quarter of the world’s population.
Though it has witnessed its turmoil and scandals through the years, the Vatican’s authority over Catholicism and its wider influence remain strong.
However, one thing which could threaten the Vatican and wider society: a crisis of faith, triggered by one event (or process) that rocks Christianity’s foundations - more significant than the Great Schism, Galileo’s telescope, and Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.
We could be about to witness the confirmation of non-terrestrial intelligence residing on Earth.
Look closely, and major things are happening.
On the Italian peninsula, the tiny nation of San Marino is currently contemplating whether to make a formal request to the United Nations, for the creation of periodic conferences, to assess the state of research on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) under the UN’S aegis.
Across the sea in the U.S., the same phenomena have sparked the U.S. Congress to create its own UAP Office. U.S. technology has been ruled out. And other known terrestrial origins may be unlikely if indeed rumored analysis made by Pentagon officials is correct.
And then we have Harvard University’s Galileo Project and the James Webb Telescope, which may provide scientific insights into UAP and glimpses into faraway planets harboring potential ET life.
The confirmation of intelligent alien life is no longer the pipe dream of a sci-fi writer hunkered down in a basement - we could potentially witness this moment within our lifetimes.
The Vatican, in addition to other religious authorities, must closely follow current and upcoming developments, as UAP is further investigated and perhaps discussed openly by world governments.
Key questions will arise.
Narratives and beliefs will be questioned.
Uncertainty will be inevitable when the moment of potential first contact arises.
UAP Conferences Held Within The Vatican
Although not at an official level, many within the Vatican have engaged with the prospect of potential non-human intelligence for years.
Since 2002 a think tank, known as the Council of International Federation of Advanced Studies (CIFAS), has held six UAP conferences at the Vatican. The purpose of the conferences was to assist the Catholic Church to prepare for any confirmation of non-human intelligence.
The six conferences held since 2002 were named:
UFOs, to believe or not to believe
At what point is knowledge about UFOs?
New discoveries in the Universe
Xenolinguistics, grammar, and language syntax to be used with other intelligent beings
Paradigms
The universe and possible encounters with other civilizations
The conferences covered a wide range of issues that the Vatican would need to contemplate regarding its stance and preparation for potential contact with non-human civilizations.
Distinguished guests were present at such events, including:
Vladimiro Bibolotti: President of CIFAS and President Emeritus of Italy’s most prominent UFO organisation known as Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) - by trade Bibolotti is a an expert in public communication.
Alfredo Magenta: Co-founder of CIFAS and a radio radiocommunications expert and former Chairman within the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for all matters related to telecommunications.
General Salvatore Marcelletti: Co-founder of CIFAS and a retired Italian Air Force General turned UAP researcher, who was once reprimanded by former Air Force colleagues for asking whether a UAP had ever crashed in Italy.
Roberto Pinotti: Then President of the CUN and (more recently of) the International Coalition for Extraterrestrial Research (ICER), - the two bodies that made the proposal (known as Project Titan) to San Marino, which could lead to UAP being discussed under the UN’s aegis.
Paolo Guizzardi: Then responsible for External Relations of the CUN, more recently ICER’s national representative for Italy and creator of Project Titan.
The conferences did not mean the Vatican was preparing for extraterrestrial (ET) confirmation or contact at any official level. And the Vatican does not have an official position on ET life or any potential ET presence on Earth
Alfredo Magenta explained: "Our presence in the Vatican is due to the fact that the Holy See is open to all voices".
CIFAF President Vladimiro Bibolotti is optimistic of the Vatican’s current trajectory in addressing non-human intelligence. Speaking to Liberation Times, Bibolotti commented:
“I believe that reading between the lines of recent Vatican events, the unprecedented speed of the Vatican in freely addressing the extraterrestrial topic in these last years cannot go unnoticed.
In my opinion, this justifies a line of reasoning that leads to cautious optimism.
In fact, today’s prudential position of the Church, albeit unofficial, is indeed consistent with the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life.
As stated by most theologians, in fact, the contrary would entail daring to limit the omnipotence of the Lord, which is considered impossible.
This position, I wish to remark, seems to offer a perhaps unintentional but most welcome parallel support and complement to a disclosure process that has not yet fully spread its wings, but which needs a theological background.”
But what is known of the Vatican’s position - even if nothing exists officially?
Little Is Known About Vatican ET Preparations
The figure of an astronaut was used to decorate St Peter’s Square for 2020’s Christmas celebrations
Although we can probably assume that Vatican officials have engaged in discussions at such conferences, very little is known about any official preparations for ET confirmation or contact.
In 2014, during a morning mass, Pope Francis joked that he would baptize a Martian, stating:
"If … an expedition of Martians arrives and some of them come to us … and if one of them says: 'Me, I want to be baptised!', what would happen?"
Then in 2008, (now former) Vatican Chief Astronomer José Gabriel Funes publicly accepted the possibility of life on other planets, stating:
“Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on earth, there can be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contrast with our faith because we can’t put limits on God’s creative freedom.”
There have also been recent subtle signs of willingness to entertain the discussion on non-human intelligence.
In 2020, the Vatican’s St Peter’s Square Nativity decorations included a figure of what appeared to be an astronaut, in a spacesuit, gripping the moon in their hands.
The display also included a sinister-looking figure in a black helmet comparable to Darth Vader.
Although it would most likely be too naïve to read much into such signs, the Vatican may have to consider its current stance on ET, given the current developments occurring within the U.S. government.
Does The Vatican Need To Change Its ET Approach?
The Vatican Observatory - Credit: By Rb85 Wikimedia
Despite tantalizing (although debatable) signs of preparation for ET contact, Vatican officials have also closed the door to the possibility of meeting non-human intelligence.
Despite accepting the possibility of other life existing on distant worlds, former Vatican Astronomer José Gabriel Funes, played down the prospect of ever meeting intelligent life in 2015, stating:
“It is probable there was life and perhaps a form of intelligent life…I don’t think we’ll ever meet a Mr Spock.”
And despite UAP gaining traction as an issue worthy of serious attention, one Vatican official has mocked the idea of the phenomena representing non-human intelligence.
To celebrate the new year, on 1 January 2022, Adjunct Scholar at the Vatican Observatory, Christopher Graney, wrote an article on the Vatican Observatory’s website, titled ‘God Bless You, and Send You a UFO-less New Year!’.
In the article, Graney attempted to scathe the UAP topic, suggesting it was all a media circus.
He event mockingly suggested UAPs originate from mermaids, writing:
“Indeed, it would make far more sense scientifically to suppose that the UAPs were the magical work of mermaids, rather than of ETs. Outer space is huge. It’s empty. It’s a nasty place—for example, there is no spot in the solar system, outside of Earth, where you could survive for ten minutes as you are. By contrast, Earth is small, cosy, a great place to live, and full of life.”
Despite little apparent knowledge regarding the observational and sensor analysis that had gone into the U.S. government’s 2021 UAP Preliminary Assessment, which could only identify one object out of 144 UAP reports, Graney concluded:
“We should think critically and scientifically about UAPs. Maybe they are just plastic bags floating in the wind. Maybe they are the result of an adversary having learned how to spoof the sophisticated systems in US aircraft, and thus a threat.
Either way, are we going to attribute the UAPs to mermaids, and ask what they mean for religion? If not, then we should not be attributing the UAPs to “extraterrestrials,” and asking the same thing. No one asks the former, so why do they ask the latter?”
If Graney believes the “UFO hoopla” is over, he did not research extensively enough before writing. Shortly before Graney’s article was published, President Joe Biden had signed the annual NDAA into law, which included legislation for a new UAP Office, which among many other provisions would include an annual unclassified report into its findings.
Note to self: Stay tuned for October 2022, when that unclassified report is due.
The Vatican may want to reconsider the sign-off of such articles in the future, as it increasingly looks unlikely that Russia or China are responsible for such phenomena. Other natural phenomena or malfunctions are equally unlikely.
On 18 April 2021, journalist Tom Rogan suggested that an assessment has been made by the Office Of Naval Intelligence that it is very unlikely UAP reflects Russian or Chinese technology. Rogan went on to state that he is 99% certain that UAP reflects non-human intelligence.
Indeed, it is perhaps unlikely that UAP has any prosaic origin, especially if such craft can remain stationary in winds aloft, maneuver abruptly or move at a considerable speed without any discernible means of propulsion.
Such comments from Graney could come back to haunt the Vatican. Unlike Graney and Funes, Harvard Astronomer and Head of the Galileo Project, Avi Loeb is more open-minded to the prospect of non-human intelligence challenging past scientific assertions, stating:
“Science offers the privilege of maintaining our childhood curiosity. As scientists, we are given the privilege of seeking evidence rather than surrendering to the “adults in the room” who dismiss a fundamental question just because they do not know the answer to it.
If `Oumuamua appears weird and if government agencies admit that they cannot figure out the nature of UAP, then scientists should come to the rescue.”
Whereas some scientists mock the topic, Loeb’s Galileo Project will begin investigating UAP this year.
And the name of Galileo provides a cautionary tale to those within the Vatican, which senior figures will no doubt be aware of.
Today’s Parallels With Galileo
Galileo’s telescopes - Credit: Sailko Wikimedia
The unknown comes with risks.
In the 1600s, Galileo Galilei a previously obscure professor from the Italian city of Padua became famous overnight, having created a lens that permitted one to see far away into the heavens.
For centuries, Aristotle’s model of the universe exercised domineering authority over Christian cosmology: Earth was the centre of the universe, and the Sun, Moon, planets, and all the fixed stars revolved around it.
But then came a rather odd discovery: observations showed that the planet Venus was orbiting around the Sun. The discovery represented a body blow to a model the Catholic Church had inherited from Aristotle.
Unable to digest the repercussions, astronomers widely sought to shrug off the implications.
Attempting to resolve the problem, many astronomers put their weight behind a new complex model: the planets orbited around the Sun, but the Sun and Moon orbited around the Earth.
But Galileo argued that it was the Earth and other planets that orbited around the Sun.
Galileo’s persistence triggered the Church to take action. Not so much for contradicting Aristotle - but holy scripture itself. It was the Book of Psalms, which said of the world that it ‘cannot be moved’.
Contradicting scripture and philosophy was the last straw of the Church, as much as it had been interested in Galileo’s observations.
Galileo’s ‘belief’ was condemned as heresy, lacking empirical evidence.
Eventually, Galileo was summoned to Rome by the inquisition and was put to trial.
In 1633, he was condemned for having defended as ‘probable’ the hypothesis that the ‘Earth moves and is not the centre of the world’.
Galileo became a martyr to superstition and ignorance.
The Church refused to contemplate what the evidence suggested.
So, today we are in a similar position.
There is evidence to suggest that we are being visited by non-human intelligence.
Similar to the 1600s, scientists (including Catholics, like Graney) are suggesting ET is merely a hypothesis to explain UAP and wish the topic would go away.
These are the same tactics used against Galileo.
Instead of investigating the evidence for themselves, those like Graney, concentrate on condemning the mere hypothesis.
Statue of Giordano Bruno - Source: Daryl Mitchell Wikimedia
It would be inappropriate to not cite Giordano Bruno alongside Galileo.
On 17 February 1600, Bruno was burned at the stake in Rome - the very location of Bruno’s horrific death can be seen in the above image, now marked by his statue.
Who sentenced his gruesome death? The Church.
Why was he burned? Because he believed that the universe was filled with many inhabited worlds, as the universe is infinite.
The Vatican has since provided a general apology for the violence afflicted upon Bruno.
But historically, those within the Vatican may understand more about the presence of non-human intelligence than ever publicly acknowledged.
What Does The Vatican Know About UAP?
The Vatican refers to UAP as Unexplained Flying Things or ‘Res Inexplicatae Volantes’.
Lue Elizondo, former Director of the Pentagon’s UAP program named AATIP, cited a visit to the Vatican, where he was provided by UAP accounts dating back to the Roman period, stating:
“When I was in Rome not too long I had the honour and privilege of speaking to some folks in the Vatican, some senior academics, and they provided to myself and some of my colleagues a copy of an ancient text.
And this was a correspondence between a Roman soldier and his general and in there they describe these what they call in Latin a clipeus.
A clipeus is the designation of the Roman shield, it’s this round lenticular shaped shield that the Romans would carry and they describe these flaming Roman shields in the sky that would follow them from battle to battle”
The Vatican’s archives span 85 kilometres (53 mi), with shelves filled with documents accumulated over hundreds of years. It is very rare for any member of the public to be granted access to such archives, often characterized as being secretive.
Included within the archives include accounts from the Our Lady of Fátima miracle - where the Virgin Mary was said to have visited three Portuguese shepherd children in 1917. The lady was described by the children as “more brilliant than the Sun".
But oddly (to some), the angelic lady claimed that the consecration of Russia (an Orthodox Christian nation) would usher in a period of world peace.
The saga of Our Lady of Fatima culminated in the world’s largest known UAP sighting. The lady had promised a miracle for the last of her apparitions.
It would occur on 13 October in the city of Fatima.
Between 30,000 and 100,000 spectators gathered for the event known as the Miracle of the Sun.
After a heavy period of rain, the Sun is said to have appeared as a spinning disc, casting multicolored lights across the landscape; the Sun was then reported to have raced towards the spectators before zig-zagging back to its normal position.
The crowd that witnessed the Miracle of the Sun event in 1917. Credit: Judah Ruah, photograph for the news paper O Seculo, published the 1917-09-29 on the news paper Illustracao Portugueza - Illustracao Portugueza 1917-09-29 Reporter de Cristo website, Public Domain - Wikimedia
To those who study UAP, such encounters have an uncanny resemblance to modern cases.
The Our Lady Of Fatima story is among many encounters to be documented by the Catholic Church.
Diana Walsh Pasulka in her book American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology, describes first-hand accounts with angels described as not looking humanoid, but “strange spinning things” which use telepathy to communicate.
Such accounts came from research from the Vatican archives, to which Pasulka was granted access.
There are many Christian texts and accounts held within the archives. But not every account and interpretation can be included within the Holy Bible.
Since the birth of the Church, it has struggled to resolve competing interpretations. The early Church was saved and defined following such struggles, by the Council of Nicaea, where Christians gathered and disputes were reconciled.
But throughout the centuries, schisms have occurred, and Christianity has splintered - although there remain losers, such as the Gnostics, who believed in a greater god, beyond that of the old testament.
Faced with possible ET contact, the Vatican faces fundamental theological challenges it has not faced since the times of Galileo and the early Church of the Third Century AD.
But if some stories are to be believed, certain Popes have not only been aware of such issues but have engaged with ET.
Did Previous Popes Have Their Own ET Encounters?
The Palace of Castel Gandolfo, where an alleged encounter took place between Pope John XXIII and an alien
If speculation is true, Pope Pius XII, knew of an alleged recovered ET craft, which landed on Italian soil in 1933. The rumor is that he informed the Americans of the craft, which was later transported back to the U.S. following World War Two, where it remains to this day.
And in 1961, it was alleged that Pope John XXIII met with an alien at the Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the Popes’ summer residence.
The encounter was apparently witnessed by Loris Francesco Capovilla. The story was reported by The Sun newspaper in 1985 but went unnoticed.
According to the story, Capovilla and the Pope were walking within the Palace’s garden, when multicolored lights became visible from above, as Capovilla describes it:
“We had them over our heads, lights, were colored lights, blue, orange, amber.”
The lights, as Capovilla allegedly claimed, were spaceships. One of the ships then landed in the garden’s south side.
A ‘being’ described as “completely human” but wrapped in dim light, walked out from the craft. As the story goes, the Pope and the being spoke for around 20 minutes, although Capovilla could not hear what they were saying.
The being then walked back into the spacecraft - the Pope looked towards Capovilla and cried.
The Pope then allegedly said:
“The children of God are everywhere, even if sometimes we find it difficult to recognize our own brothers.”
Questions Now Faced By The Vatican
Photo by Eduardo Garcia-Nieto on Unsplash
Pope Francis may take solace in a 2011 study for the Royal Society, where around 90% of believers felt they would not have a crisis of faith if intelligent life were discovered on other planets.
But perhaps the issue is more complex - especially if such intelligence resides in this world, and has done for some time.
In his book, Jesus, UFOs, Aliens, author Armin Kreiner, poses some of the questions that the Catholic Church may have to grapple with.
For instance:
Did Jesus incarnate among ETs too?
Do ETs fit within the original sin?
Would ETs even need salvation if there was no original sin?
Are ETs religious?
Even former Vatican José Gabriel Funes, (who has made mixed statements about the possibility of nonhuman intelligence) accepts that the consequences for Christianity could be profound.
In 2009, the Vatican Observatory and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, held discussions with scientists to examine the origin of life and the possibility of ET life.
The discussions concluded with a press conference, where Funes commented:
“The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very interesting and deserve serious consideration.
These questions offer many philosophical and theological implications,"
If non-human intelligence (perhaps on this Earth) are thousands or millions of years more advanced, the issues historically dealt with by religion may be definitively answered.
In other words, the Church could lose its authority over topics, such as life after death.
Philosophical questions would be answered and become scientific facts.
Some scholars have a more optimistic outlook though.
As David Wilkinson, a theologian and astrophysicist commented at the ‘Our Future in Space’ forum that occurred in Washington D.C., on 10 November 2021, perhaps an encounter with the “other” may tell us something about ourselves.
Wilkinson added that Christians should not be worried about meeting ET intelligence and that it would represent a matter of humility, which Christianity teaches.
According to Christianity, God loves all of His creation, including other life.
As Wilkinson puts it, “God’s interest is far more than human beings.”
That may be true - and such contemplation may very well be happening within the confines of the Vatican at this moment.
Despite apparent mixed messaging, perhaps the Vatican is already aware of the reality behind ETs?
Such is the wealth of knowledge that exists within its archives - some Vatican officials, like Pasulka, could conclude that primary source material points towards characters, such as angels, representing advanced non-human life.
Whatever challenges ET may pose - whether good or bad - the Vatican will play an important role in any future conversations.
The Impact On Society
In a recent interview with journalist George Knapp, Lue Elizondo stated that one of the most important priorities going forward in the UAP discussion would be sociology, which is by definition the study of:
Social life
Social change
The social causes and consequences of human behavior.
If Christianity is the moral fish tank that the Western world swims in, then many will be looking towards the Vatican, should any major revelations about UAP transpire.
Let’s also not forget that Christianity reflects the most prominent religion in Europe, Africa, North America, Oceania, and South America.
The time may soon come for Vatican officials to escalate this conversation.
It looks reasonable to expect, that such a narrative may soon emerge, as Vatican officials become more vocally supportive of evidence suggesting non-human intelligence is present amongst us.
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Note: Accounts regarding Galileo were informed by Tom Holland’s ‘Dominion: The Making Of The Western Mind.’