Michael Hesemann interviewed Msgr. Corrado Balducci in Rome and received an amazing answer to this question:

Msgr. Balducci is one of the best-known and most respected Italian theologians. He is a regular guest on Italian State TV, where he has made several statements about the UFO phenomenon since 1995. He has spoken at UFO conferences in Acapulco and San Marino. This is the very first detailed statement of a senior Roman Catholic theologian and Curia (Vatican) member on the UFO phenomenon, and demonstrates the openness of the Roman Catholic church on this question. Since Balducci first started speaking out about UFOs, the Dalai Lama, several rabbis in Israel and, in 2001, the Muslim authorities of Turkey have also made positive statements on this subject. UFOs are not only no problem for the worlds largest Christian church, but for other world religions too.

Msgr. Balducci says: UFOsThere must be something real about them. Everybody must come to this conclusion who approaches the question of extraterrestrial life with similar individual, social and religious structures, and with reason and common sense. There is a great and constantly growing number of eyewitness testimony about the so-called “flying saucers,” spacecraft and extraterrestrials. Many of these eyewitnesses are highly qualified observers with a profound education, who did not believe in them before they had their personal encounter

Of course, some eyewitness reports are based on imagination, hallucination or external influence. In other instances they were caused by atmospheric phenomena, lenticular clouds or ball lightning. Others turned out to be state-of-the-art aircraft types of the Americans and Russians, tested during the Cold War. Already during World War II, UFOs were thought to be the secret weapon of the enemy. But all this is not enough to explain a great part of the eyewitness testimony and the UFO phenomenon itself. Even the most careful investigation can only reduce the number of real cases and sift the chaff from the wheat, but can never explain them all satisfactorily, as the past has taught us. In many countries professional or semi-professional organizations investigate UFO sightings in cooperation with scientists and experts to separate explainable from unidentifiable cases. In France there is the governmental SEPRA, in Italy the “National Ufological Center” CUN, which has existed for nearly 40 years

Let me add one more important point: The general skepticism, the systematic, total denial, damages, even destroys the basic value of the human testimony with grave and incalculable consequencesOf course thereare errors and lies, but generally all our life is based on what we learned from others. It is unthinkable to live without this basic confidence, unimaginable are the consequences of a general negation of the human experience on the individual, social and religious life. It would destroy the very basis of any human society! This applies to the religious life, too. Indeed the Christian religion is based on the testimony of humans who became witnesses of Gods revelation in historical events

We can exclude that angels use spaceships. As purely spiritual beings, angels can project themselves at any place they want to reach and, in rare instances, when they want to reveal themselves, take a visible form without any difficulty When the Holy Virgin wants to reveal Herself to Mankind (as has happened in rare, well-documented cases) she chose forms in which She can express Her love and care as a mother and Her motherly compassion with us. We dont even have to waste a thought on the devil and his demons, who still kept their angelic nature, being fallen angels and therefore also purely spiritual beings, since they are limited in their activity by God and therefore not able to bring all their hatred to us. If the devil would take the initiative, not a single living being would remain on Earth, St. Augustine wroteWhen we talk about extraterrestrials, we refer to humanoid beings which are, like us, of both, a spiritual and a material nature, a physical body (for which they indeed need spacecraft), although in their case the relationship between mind and matter might be a different one than in our case

It is very well possible that other inhabited planets exist. We do not find any direct reference to extraterrestrial life in the Bible, but it neither excludes their existence. Since God’s wisdom and omnipotence has no limits and is infinite indeed, this possibility doubtlessly exists. The existence of other inhabited planets is highly probable. The distance between the angels, purely spiritual beings, and us, beings of spirit and matter, body and soul is too large. Our soul cannot act without the body, its unalterable means, which through its passions and sinfulness influences the soul so deeply that man becomes unstable and rather tends toward the bad than towards the good.

Therefore it is highly probable that in between, between us and the angels, another life form exists, namely beings which still have a physical body but one which is more perfect than ours and influences the soul less in its intelligent acts and intentionsOnly man can consciously worship God, because of his free will and intelligence. Therefore several theologians consider it not only possible but very probable that out there in Space, unreachable for our scientific instruments, other beings exist who recognize and venerate God since they realized this as the reason and meaning of their world and the creation itself

The inhabitability of other planets is not only possible and probable, but also desirable. In the future, even in a far- distant-one, their possible inhabitants, if they are indeed superior to us, can help and support us in our spiritual development. In this way, which we cannot prove, they might have helped and protected us already in the past Pope John Paul II, when asked by a child, Holy Father, are there any aliens replied, Always remember: They are children of God just as we are.

http://www.michaelhesemann.com

NOTE: This Insight, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.