Believing that there are little green men who one day will land on earth does not contradict Catholic doctrine, according to the chief of the Vatican's Observatory. Fr. Jose Gabriel Funes told L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily, that such extraterrestrial life "is possible, even if until now, we have no proof."
"But certainly in such a big universe this hypothesis cannot be excluded," he told the newspaper.
According to a report by Catholic News Agency, the interview was titled, "The Alien is my Brother." Funes, a 45-year-old Argentinean priest who runs the Vatican Observatory, said, "Astronomy has a profound human value. It is a science that opens the heart and the mind. It helps us to put our lives, our hopes, our problems in the right perspective.
In this regard, and here I speak as a priest and a Jesuit, it is an apostolic instrument that can bring us closer to God," he told the newspaper.
Funes said he favors the "Big Bang" theory about the origin of the universe and that does not contradict the Bible.
"We cannot ask the Bible for a scientific answer here," he said. "At the same time, we don't know if in a near future the 'Big Bang' theory will be superseded by a more complete and precise explanation of the origin of the universe."
But there is no tension between the Catholic faith and the belief in aliens, Funes said.
"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures over the earth, so there could be other beings, even intelligent, created by God. This is not in contradiction with our faith, because we cannot establish limits to God's creative freedom," he told the newspaper. "To say it with St. Francis, if we can consider some earthly creatures as 'brothers' or 'sisters,' why could we not speak of a 'brother alien'? He would also belong to the creation," he said.
"Fr. Funes says that taking the image of the lost sheep in the Gospel, 'we could think that in this universe there can be 100 sheep, equivalent to different kinds of creatures. We, belonging to human kind could be precisely the lost sheep, the sinners that need the shepherd. God became man in Jesus to save us. In that way, assuming that there would be other intelligent beings, we could not say that they need redemption . They could have remained in full friendship with the Creator,'" Catholic News Agency quoted him saying.
The journalist for L'Osservatore then asked, "But if they were sinners?"
"Jesus became man once and for all. The Incarnation is a single and unique event. So I am sure that also they, in some way, would have the chance to enjoy God's mercy, just as it has happened with us human beings," Funes responded.
The priest heads the Vatican Observatory, founded by Pope Leo XIII, with offices at Castelgandolfo, near the Apostolic summer palace, and another in Tucson, Ariz.
Pope Benedict XVI, who recently visited the U.S., has included an exploration of the links between faith and reason as a focal point of his papacy.