Pope's astronomer believes in alien life, will welcome extra-terrestrials to church

Church? Mine is rasta.

Pope Francis himself said on May 9 this year that should aliens visit Earth and want to join the church, they would be welcome. Now the new boss at the Vatican Observatory Foundation says something similar. He states his belief in life beyond Earth and how he doesn't see any conflict between extraterrestrial life and God.

The big question, in my view, is not whether aliens exist. Within our cosmological horizon there may be up to 40.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 stars and many times that number of planets, and you think we are alone? The question we should ask ourselves is rather why alien civilizations would want to meet us? Those aged species may be like many of our 70-year-old blasé humans who prefer wild life TV shows to a picnic. A general awareness of our existence somewhere out there may be enough for those mellow oldsters. See our own aging society and you may get some ideas of their much older civilizations.

From cruxnow.com: "Vatican astronomer: No surprise when we find life elsewhere"

"Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, the new president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, has no doubt that life exists elsewhere in the universe. And when humanity discovers it, the news will come as no big surprise.

He suggested that the likely discovery — whether next month or a millennium from now — will be received much the way that news of planets orbiting far-off stars has filtered in since the 1990s."

“The general public is going to be, ‘Oh, I knew that. I knew it was going to be there,’” Brother Consolmagno told Catholic News Service prior to a presentation at a NASA/Library of Congress symposium on preparing for the discovery of life in the universe Sept. 18-19.

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"A planetary scientist who has studied meteorites and asteroids as an astronomer with the Vatican Observatory since 1993, Brother Consolmagno said he hopes the questions about life on other planets will focus more on how humanity sees itself.

“When we say human, human as compared to what?” he asked.

While the discovery of life elsewhere will not prove nor disprove the existence of God, Brother Consolmagno expects that it will open the door to ponder what form salvation history may take in other intelligent societies."

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