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UFO
REVELATION 6
Dr. Barry H. Downing
UFOS
AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Dolan
and Zabel, in their book A.D. After
Disclosure, have a chapter sub-heading
entitled, “The Vatican Moves Toward Disclosure.” They say that
“The world’s largest church seems to be positioning itself to be
the world’s most open religious institution, at least regarding
life elsewhere in the universe.” (p. 253) Dolan and Zabel point to
the Vatican’s interest in astronomy, as well as to persons close to
the Vatican, like the late Msgr. Corrado Balducci, who has spoken
openly about his belief UFOs are real and extraterrestrial.
[I
found no reference in Dolan and Zabel to the Eastern Orthodox
tradition and UFOs; an internet search for “Eastern Orthodox Church
and UFOs” yielded little.]
No
Protestant denomination has anything like the Vatican. Vatican City
is a sovereign state within the city of Rome, Italy. Within its
walls are a little over one hundred acres, established as independent
from Italy in 1929. Public safety in the Vatican is maintained by
the Pontifical Swiss Guard. Regulations for the Vatican are usually
published in Italian, while regulations for the Holy See, the Roman
Catholic world wide church government, are usually published in
Latin. The Pope, however is head, as a monarch, of both the Vatican
and the Holy See.
Interestingly,
it is the Holy See that conducts diplomatic relations with the
nations of the world, not the Vatican. Catholic diplomats are called
nuncios, and go through special training before being assigned.
The
Vatican is sometimes seen as a place of intrigue, as in the film
“Angels and Demons” (2009), staring Tom Hanks, and based on the
book by Dan Brown. In the film Hanks stars as a symbologist who has
specialized in the “Illuminati,” a secret group that has for
centuries tried, in the name of science, to avenge the crimes of the
Roman Church against science. In some ways the film is just another
terrorist bombing story, but it does give an inside view of how the
Vatican works.
I
want to talk about what I would do about UFOs if I were the Pope. (I
do not think this fantasy is based on Protestant envy, but I cannot
be sure.) I would ask my ambassadors (nuncios) to enquire of other
nations concerning their views of the UFO situation. Are they
extraterrestrial? What is their threat assessment? What is their
origin, and purpose?
We
do not know what the responses might be, but I would guess that the
U.S. Ambassador would say that “UFOs are a highly classified
subject, and I do not even have access to this information myself.”
But according to the rules of diplomacy, the Vatican would not even
be able to make this statement public. We have seen the storm caused
when Wikileaks started releasing classified diplomatic documents.
The Holy See has to play by the world’s rules in regard to
diplomatic secrecy, otherwise it will not be given confidential
information.
But
if a Catholic nuncio to France were to ask about UFOs, he would
probably be handed the French COMETA report, which states very
directly the UFOs are real and extraterrestrial. If the nuncio asked
for specific examples, he might be told of the French Air Force
pilot, who with his wife, witnessed a UFO landing, on December 9,
1979, a little over 200 yards from their home. They said it was about
65 feet in diameter, and “the object looked like two reversed
saucers pressed against each other, with a precise contour, a gray
metal color on the top and dark blue below, with no lights or
portholes.” (Maj. Gen. Denis Letty, “The Birth of COMETA,”
chapter 13 in Leslie Kean’s book UFOs:
Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record,
2010, p. 124)
MSGR.
CORRADO BALDUCCI—THE CATHOLIC UFO AUTHORITY
As
the diplomatic reports come in, as Pope I would appoint someone to
coordinate the information, and recommend both a private and public
position for the church. Msgr. Corrado Balducci seems to have
carried out this role for the Pope. Balducci was trained in the
theology of the demonic, but became well known for TV appearances in
which he spoke of the reality of UFOs, and held the position that
they were extraterrestrial, and from the “natural world,” not the
“supernatural world.” Balducci would conclude, after hearing
many stories of how the UFOs appeared to be solid, and metallic, that
we are dealing not with the supernatural, but rather with an advanced
technology. I question the Balducci position, that UFOs are neither
angels nor demons. Biblical people saw UFOs, and met “angelic
beings,” but these primitive people would not be in a position to
distinguish between the “supernatural” and the
“super-technological.” We need to remember “supernatural” is
not a biblical word. (See my article “The Balducci Interview and
Religious Certainty,” at Strong Delusion Archives, and in the MUFON
UFO Journal, September 1998, p. 16 ff; also
see my article “Biblical Miracles as Super-Technology,” in The
Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters,
2001, p. 111 ff.; also see Whitley Strieber, Confirmation,
1998, “Extraterrestrials and Christianity,” interview with
Corrado Balducci, conducted by Michael Hesemann, p. 265-274.)
Balducci
was also trained in the Vatican to be a nuncio. Whether he served as
an ambassador who sought UFO information from other countries is not
public information, and by the rules of diplomacy, could not be. If
Balducci learned that the United States is in possession of crashed
UFOs, and dead (or alive) aliens, this is not information he could
disclose.
But the Catholic
Church, in the eyes of Dolan and Zabel, is in a sense “out front”
in regard to extraterrestrial contact, compared with other branches
of Christianity. So far as I know, the Pope has said nothing about
UFOs—this protects the credibility of the Pope, in case his nuncios
have been given misleading information. But at the same time, if the
Day of Disclosure comes, Catholic leaders will be able to say, “We
told you so.”
Dolan and Zabel point
out that the Vatican’s astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, has spoken
openly about the possibility of life on other planets, and he gained
some media attention when he said that he would offer baptism to
aliens. AOL News contacted me for a response to the Consolmagno
baptism idea, and I asked “why would we suppose that they [aliens]
would not already have the Holy Spirit, and not need to be baptized
by the Church?” (AOL News, September 24, 2010)
I
do not think we should suppose that the Universal Christ has been
confined to our planet, and our historical time, in a universe that
is 13 billion years old. We do not know what Jesus meant when he
said, “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold.” (Jn
10:16; maybe he meant the Gentiles, or maybe he meant beyond this
world.)
The
people of God have frequently supposed they have the right to
restrain, or put boundaries on, the Spirit of God, and by
implication, to limit the love of God. If God is love (1 Jn. 4:8),
the church makes a bad witness whenever we imply we control the love
of God. Consolmagno’s offer of baptism appears generous, and
positive, but it represents a kind of arrogance that the church
should avoid, but rarely does. The Bible reports an Exodus
experience when God was going to pour his Spirit in a special way on
the 70 ruling elders of Israel. They were all called to the Tent of
Meeting for an early Holy Spirit baptism, but two did not come.
There was some surprise when the two who “remained in the camp”
received the spirit (Num. 11:16-35). When the Holy Spirit was given
at Pentecost, it fell on all nations and tribes (Acts 2).
The
Holy Spirit even came on Gentiles who had not been baptized, in
response to Peter’s preaching, much to the surprise of Christian
leaders (Acts 10:44-48). Baptism was administered after the Holy
Spirit was given, as a kind of quick follow up to what God had done
without church permission. But I think it is better hospitality to
offer baptism to UFO strangers (Heb. 13:2), than to condemn them as
demons, as conservative Christians like Gary Bates does in his book
Alien Intrusion
(2004). Bates condemns me as a believer who has been “deceived
and fallen away.” (p. 327) He condemns me and my book without
quoting a single sentence from it. Maybe I am deceived, but I think
the Sodom story, not to mention the demonizing of Jesus by religious
leaders, ought to make all Christians be very careful about how we
demonize strangers.
THE
FATIMA STORY—CATHOLIC MIRACLE, UFO EXPERIENCE, OR BOTH?
Although
I believe there are weaknesses in the current Roman Catholic position
in regard to UFOs, I prefer it to the frequent Protestant position
that UFOs are demons. One problem Catholics will face when
Disclosure comes is identifying the difference between a UFO
sighting, and an official Catholic miracle. The story of the miracle
of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917 is a good example. The miracle was
preceded with reports from three children that they were having
occasional visitations from the Virgin Mary, while tending their
sheep.
On
October 13, 1917, a huge crowd, perhaps 50,000 people, saw a strange
large sliver aerial disk in the sky, which went through an unusual
series of motions. The light from this UFO was as bright as the sun,
but the witnesses could stare at it without eye strain. The
challenge here is though this is seen as a miracle by the Catholic
Church, from the point of view of UFO researchers, it sounds like a
somewhat standard UFO report, with some strange “paranormal”
fallout. The Catholic Church claims this as a miracle. UFO
researchers see it as typical of a flying saucer sighting. How do we
tell the difference? Is there a difference? In what sense is this a
supernatural event, as opposed to a display of advanced technology?
(See Ann Druffel’s article, “Fatima,” in The
Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, p. 188 ff.)
At
the end of UFO REVELATION 1, I put forward the hypothetical scenario:
what if a UFO landed “in a poor community in Mexico, and a human
got out of the UFO and said, ‘I am Jesus, I am come to the least of
you on earth. I want all who believe in me to repent, and turn to
God and your neighbor for forgiveness. Very soon I will be returning
with my angels in judgment. The earth, my bride, is not ready for
me, but I yearn to come. Please tell the world I long to come,
‘Surely I am coming soon.’”
I
then ask, how would Christians react to this kind of Disclosure? The
Roman Catholic Church would investigate this. The Fatima story, with
its focus first on the children, on “the least of us,” fits the
divine pattern. Jesus landing, not on the White House lawn, or at
the Vatican, but in a poor town in Mexico, fits the gospel priorities
we all know. It would surprise the Catholic investigation team that
Jesus got out of the flying saucer, not the Virgin Mary. They would
question the witnesses, they would be slow to call this an official
miracle. But they would take the report seriously.
Protestant liberals
would ignore this all together. They believe in neither miracles,
nor UFOs. This would be just another religious myth, they would
stand firmly in the skeptical tradition of scientists like Donald
Menzel and Carl Sagan.
Protestant
conservatives would say this is just typical Catholic superstition,
which the Reformation got rid of with it doctrine of “scripture
alone” as the rule of faith and practice. If Jesus stands in front
of us, and says hello, this is “experience,” not scripture, and
counts for nothing. Others, like Gary Bates, would say that the
Mexico UFO story is a further example of demonic deception.
Not
long ago I gave my standard UFOs and the Bible talk to a local group,
with a strong emphasis on the Exodus UFO. After the presentation, a
woman spoke to me, saying she was Roman Catholic, and she appreciated
my presentation. I said, “Catholics seem to handle my biblical
interpretation better than Protestants.” She asked, “Why is
that?” I said “Because you Catholics believe miracles can happen
any time.” She said, “That’s right, we have visions of Mary
all the time. In fact, Mary spoke to me when I was in Guadalupe.”
I have to confess that my Protestant mind froze at that point, and I
did not ask the obvious question, “What did Mary say?”
During
1984 I conducted a survey of theological seminaries in the United
States, sending out four questions to one hundred seminaries. One
response I received was from the very Rev. J. Edgar Bruns, from the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, dated December 20, 1984.
He did not just answer my questions, he wrote a letter saying, “I
strongly suspect that many UFO sightings are authentic, i.e., not
hallucinations or misperceptions of ordinary phenomena or of military
experiments. It would be my assumption that any genuine UFO was
controlled by intelligent beings from another world.” He went on
to say that our salvation in Christ is not threatened by an alien
presence, and referred to the C.S. Lewis’ trilogy dealing with
outer space concepts (“Out of the Silent Planet” etc.) “If
intelligent life exists elsewhere and has not fallen from Grace, I
would consider such creatures equivalent to the biblical angels.”
(Letter in my possession.)
Both
based on the public positions taken by Roman Catholics, apparently
with Vatican approval, as well as my direct experience in discussions
with Catholics, I believe they are much better positioned than
Protestants, either liberal or conservative, to deal with UFO
disclosure. Dolan and Zabel are right to say that Roman Catholics
are best positioned among Christians to deal with Disclosure when it
comes. Conservative Protestants are caught up in their fear of
deception and demons, which I admit is no small issue. But liberal
Protestants are clueless, and I will try to explain why in UFO
REVELATION 7.
Dr.
Barry H. Downing
June
5, 2011
http://thestrongdelusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1628&Itemid=9 Part 5
http://thestrongdelusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1621&Itemid=9 Part 4
http://thestrongdelusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1608&Itemid=9 Part 3
http://thestrongdelusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1593&Itemid=9 Part 2
http://thestrongdelusion.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1574&Itemid=9 Part 1
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