The Vatican's Version of Visitors from Venus

The Vatican's top stargazer and the Pope's Chief astronomer, Fr. Jose Funes, has declared that intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space. The official Vatican newspaper headlined the item "Aliens are my Brother", which clarifies the Church's position that the search for extraterrestial life forms does not contradict belief in God.The logic is premised on the concept that God created the universe, and all life forms and intelligent beings therein are God's handiwork.

If so, does this official church statement validate to some degree the Mormon claims of God being a space man originating from some planet as an intelligent being? If aliens are our brothers, does it lend further credence to the Mormon claim that God populated the Earth, had begotten Jesus and His half brother Lucifer? These have been left unanswered. What the statement speculated was that these intelligent life forms could be free from original sin. At least we know there are no apple trees nor serpents in space.

After centuries of disagreements on the roles of science and religion, the Vatican has been funding astronomical research. Next year, it has scheduled a conference marking the 200th birth anniversary of Charles Darwin, author of The Origin of Species. Whether this event will mean the acceptance of Darwin's theories and the rewriting of the Old Testament remains to be seen. But Charles Darwin's theories raised a furor among Catholic and Christian churches at the time it was published. Criticized and scoffed at, they tried to make a monkey out of him.

The Vatican brushes this aside by pressing the argument that the "Church is not afraid of science, and that truth does not contradict truth. That if you have faith, you're never going to be afraid of what science can come up with". This means that whatever scientific findings are unearthed, with faith, it can all be attributed to God's plans and creations. So if there are surprises, it's because God didn't want us to bother with the surprise earlier?

But what of contradictions to Church teachings? Galileo was tried for heresy by the inquisition in 1632 for supporting the belief that the earth revolved around the sun as Copernicus believed, but the scriptures interpretation was that of Ptolemy and Aristotle's view that the sun revolved around the earth. Galileo was imprisoned, his works were prevented from being published, and was later put on house arrest for the rest of his life. It was only in October, 1992, when Pope John Paul II corrected the error, that the Catholic Church finally admitted that Galileo was right. With all its educated priests and scholars, the Church was the last to know that the sun was stationary. Or, it takes a long time for it to admit and be sorry for its mistakes. It took 350 years for them to rehabilitate Galileo, whose remains, after that long spell, have already become fossil fuel.

This also brings to mind Erich Von Daniken, who concluded that there were ancient aliens who came down to earth, that these were God's angels, and the Arc of the Covenant was a transmitter that Moses used to communicate with God. Will these be the Theology of the future? Shall these be merged too with Scientology?

This is all getting to be confusing. Perhaps it's time to switch to a simple and more visual faith. One comes to mind, the Church of the Jedi's.

Harrrwwwwk...Twoooooph...Ting!

The Pope, Piety and Popularity

After Pope John Paul II died in April 2005, a vacuum developed between the Catholic Church and its 1.131 billion Catholic membership worldwide. The assumption of the Papacy by Joseph Ratzinger, who chose the name Pope Benedict XVI, has done little to ease the sense of loss and displacement of Catholics in their faith that missed the comforting presence of John Paul II. The Church seemed distant, and the initial pronouncements of Pope Benedict XVI regarding changes in the conduct of the Holy Mass engendered a disconnection among many Catholics who find difficulty feeling the present Pope.

Pope Benedict XVI espouses fundamental Catholic practices of worship. His views and principles that promote orthodox Catholic teaching is an abrupt departure from the openness and liberalized methods that had been universally accepted as welcome changes. Practices which made the Holy Mass more participative, more open and involved, unified and adapted to local cultures, were ordered reversed to the traditional worship procedures. These include the priest with his back to the churchgoers, veils for women, and use of Latin. The impact of this order hit the entire Church membership instantly since it is where Catholics converge on Sundays. Confusion followed unanswered questions , and the hopes of the local Catholic leadership for ready compliance turned into disassociation.

Being the immediate successor to Pope John Paul II, comparisons may be unfair but unavoidable. John Paul II had a very friendly and approachable persona. He was a charismatic Pope who had the ability to inspire billions of members globally; the knack for rallying professionals, elderly, and working class Catholics to a regeneration of the faith; and the communication savvy to connect with the youth worldwide whose influence they embraced, whose words they absorbed, whose humanity they accepted and loved. His memory lives on in the youth whom he has touched spiritually and emotionally.

In contrast, Benedict XVI has a stern projection that can be daunting to those who want to reach out. As the present head and spiritual leader of the Catholic Church on Earth, his words and actions were taught to be infallible. This teaching no longer holds as much awe and wonder as it used to. His address at the University of Regensburg inappropriately used a 14th century Papal quotation that slammed the Muslim faith - causing protests from Muslims worldwide. The fiasco was done at a time when inter-faith harmony was being promoted.

The 6-day Papal visit to the United States, where 67 million Catholics (22% of the population) reside and whose practice of the faith differ widely with the tenets of conservative Catholic teaching, will test the Pope's diplomacy and will. Compared to Europe, America is largely conservative and he will find it more to his liking. Conservatives reign in America, from government, business and industry, Christian and Evangelical denominations, and the American population at large. But underneath this conservatism are legal practices that contradict Catholic tenets, where one remains a good Catholic despite having an abortion, using birth control devices, divorcing a spouse, remarrying, marrying someone of the same gender, changing of one's gender, and going to Church when convenient. These, he cannot undo. Also, he will have to face the issues regarding sexual abuses done by priests and nuns that undermined the moral authority of the Church and the faith itself.

The conflict within conservative America may have rendered the Catholic tenets irrelevant, and perhaps irreconcilable with their way of life. This lack of attachment has caused a serious disconnect between American Catholics and the Church. A purification of the practice of the faith is needed, one that will find agreement within their ranks and bring them in harmony and unity with all people in the world through God. But how can he reconcile unity with all men and love of God when God's teachings are disregarded and ignored? Would not retaining the contradictions in practice make the religion hypocritical and senseless? Are the contradictions beneath the veneer of conservatism in America manifestations of pretense and hypocrisy? If the Pope glosses over these contradictions, is he being hypocritical?

It is almost impossible to be a Catholic in a world so mired in untruth that is regarded as an angle of the truth or a version of the truth. If Jesus is the only truth, then the inter-faith harmony is seeking unity with a lie. If peace and co-existence is the goal, then Catholics are allowed to coexist in peace with a contradiction. This is what will perhaps reunite American Catholics with God and heaven, in making their bed for peace and coexistence, they can lie with a contradiction.

Haaarrrrwwwwwk...Twooooooooph...Ting!