What’s Out There?

THE EXISTENCE of extraterrestrial intelligence has been posited by thinkers since the beginning of modern science. Lately, however, a spate of official scientific investigations has added weight to the idea that outer space may be inhabited by intelligent life-forms, and in numerous parts of the world sophisticated equipment is being used to detect and possibly even to communicate with alien intelligent beings in outer space. Moreover, some countries have finally decided to disclose hitherto confidential information in their possession on past sightings of UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects).



Even the Church herself, which has always treated the question with great caution, has recently warmed to the idea. In November 2009 the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Vatican Observatory, organised an international conference of astronomers, biologists, geologists and religious to discuss the subject of extraterrestrial civilisations.



“The conference was attended by scientists from all over the world, and from all faiths and religious backgrounds, including some atheists,” says Guy Consolmagno, a Jesuit Brother, theologian and astrophysicist of international repute.



“It was their desire to exchange views and information and, above all, to evaluate their views in the light of Church teaching. Many people believe that the Catholic Church denies the existence of intelligent life in outer space, but this is not true. Belief in extraterrestrial intelligences has never been in contrast with Church teaching. Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, who brought the Holy Father’s greetings to those in attendance, said at the opening speech, ‘In scientific research we should not be afraid of any truth because science, in extending our knowledge, contributes to the fulfilment of our humanity’.



For us believers, the study of the universe is a breathtaking adventure that can only fill us with wonder at God’s creation. Personally, I cannot believe that God would be so limited as to only create intelligent life-forms here on earth, so the universe may well contain other worlds populated by intelligent beings created by His overabundant love”.





Distinguished institution





Brother Consolmagno is one of the leading scientists at the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the world. The Vatican Observatory is an astronomical research and educational institution established by Pope Gregory XIII in the second half of the 16th century. Since its foundation, the institution has made great contributions to astronomy through its highly qualified scientist.



Until 1935 the Observatory was based at the Vatican. In that year the institution was transferred to the summer residence of the popes at Castel Gandolfo, 25 kilometres southeast of Rome, because the smoke and sky-glow of the Eternal City made it impossible to conduct useful observations of the heavens. However, by 1961, the same problems existed at Castel Gandolfo, so the Observatory then established the Vatican Observatory Research Group (VORG), with offices at the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. In 1993, the Vatican Observatory Research Group completed the 1.8 meters (71 inches) Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, located at Mount Graham near Safford, Arizona, at an altitude of 3,000 meters. The Observatory’s headquarters, however, remain at Castel Gandolfo.



The current Director of the Observatory is Fr José Gabriel Funes, SJ. Many distinguished scholars have worked at the Observatory. In 2008, the Templeton Prize was awarded to cosmologist Fr. Michał Heller, a Vatican Observatory Adjunct Scholar. In 2010, the George Van Biesbroeck Prize was awarded to Fr. George Coyne, SJ, former Observatory director.





A Jesuit scientist





Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, was born on September 19, 1952, in Detroit, Michigan. He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School before he obtained his BA (1974), MA (1975), degrees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his PhD (1978) at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, all in planetary science. After postdoctoral research and teaching at Harvard College Observatory and MIT, in 1983 he joined the US Peace Corps to serve in Kenya for two years, teaching astronomy and physics. After his return he took a position as Assistant Professor at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.



In 1989 he entered the Society of Jesus, and took vows as a brother in 1991. On entry into the Order he was assigned as an astronomer to the Vatican Observatory, where he also serves as curator of the Vatican Meteorite collection, positions he has held since then. In addition to his continuing professional work in planetary science, he has also studied philosophy and theology.



His research is centered on the connections between meteorites and asteroids, and the origin and evolution of small bodies in the solar system. In addition to over 40 refereed scientific papers, he has co-authored several books on astronomy for the popular market, which have been translated into multiple languages. During 1996 he took part in the Antarctic Search for Meteorites, ANSMET, where he discovered a number of meteorites on the ice fields of Antarctica. A meteorite was named in his honor by the International Astronomical Union in 2000: the ‘4597 Consolmagno’, also known as ‘Little Guy’.



I was very warmly received by Brother Consolmagno at the new headquarters of the Vatican Observatory at Castel Gandolfo. Last year the Observatory was moved from the Pontifical Palace of Castel Gandolfo to a larger area – the nearby convent of Basilian nuns. Brother Consolmagno lead us through the research laboratories and the library, where over 22,000 historic scientific documents are kept, including originals from Copernicus, Kepler and Newtown, the archive which stores all the photos taken by the telescope from the 30s to the present, and the rooms where the meteorite collection is kept.





God and Time





The Vatican Observatory is a prestigious astronomical observatory, but has the Church always been interested in Astronomy?



The Church has always had great interest in Astronomy. This science was actually part of the Quadrivium, the four subjects (Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy) that students at universities founded by the Church in the Middle Ages had to study.



Our faith teaches us that God created the universe out of love, and that He loves His own creation to the point of having sent His only begotten Son to become a part of it. Saint Athanasius, in the 4th century, maintained that the Incarnation of Jesus has turned the whole universe into something ‘sacred’. To study the universe is, therefore, an activity similar to prayer; it is a way of paying homage to God, its creator, and it is also an excellent way of getting to know God better.



In short, my faith tells me ‘who’ created the universe, while my science tells me ‘how’ He did it. The Church is very active in upholding the study of Astronomy because she believes in a God who created the universe.



According to theologian-philosophers, this creative act did not happen once and for all a long time ago, but is being constantly re-enacted to maintain the existence of the universe within the current of Time, because Time itself is a creation of God.



Creation is a systematic and rational act, and this means that the universe is to be understood in a systematic and rational way. John’s Gospel begins with the words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Greek term for Word is Logos, from which our term ‘logic’ is derived. This means that ‘logic’ was present in the act of creation right from the very beginning.



Do you allow the possibility of intelligent life-forms elsewhere in the universe? What is the Church’s take on this issue?



In this field the Church has great faith in science and scientific research. I would also like to point out that the Bible contains nothing that either endorses or contradicts the existence of intelligent life on other planets.





The Church and Science





The Church was once hostile to science. For instance, in 1600 the Church condemned Galileo’s ideas, which were subsequently proved correct.



The history of humanity is replete with mistakes caused by human moral frailty, but in the end truth always wins. In Galileo’s own time many men of faith were on his side. The Church’s condemnation was, in fact, the work of a limited number of fanatical individuals who unfortunately  had great clout within the Curia. There were Catholic scientists who held views similar to those of Galileo even before his time. One need but mention Cardinal Nicholas of Kues, who lived in the 15th century. He was a man of immense learning and culture, theologian, philosopher, humanist, jurist, mathematician and astronomer. Already in his days he held that the earth is not immobile, but that she rotates around her own axis, that the stars are similar to the sun, that around them there may well be orbiting planets, and that some of these planets may even be inhabited by intelligent beings.



Closer to our times, in 1800 there was Father Angelo Secchi, an Italian Jesuit and director of the Vatican Observatory. Father Secchi was one of the first scientists to study the physical constitution of the heavenly bodies through photography and spectroscopy. He also conducted very important research on the sun and on the classification of stars. He believed in the possibility of alien life forms, writing in 1856, “It is with sweet feelings that man thinks of these worlds without number where every star is a sun which, as a minister of divine wealth, distributes life and goodness to the other innumerable beings blessed by the hand of the Omnipotent”.



Secchi’s views have recently been reiterated by Father Coyne, who said in an interview, “The Universe is so huge that it would be folly to believe that we are an exception, that we are the only intelligent beings in the universe”.





Shooting stars





You are an international authority on meteorites, those fragments of solids from outer space erroneously called ‘shooting stars’. Can the study of meteorites shed light on the existence of life on other worlds?



Indeed they can. Meteorites contain compounds of carbon and water, the base substances from which life is formed. These fragments from outer space are of intense scientific interest because they lead us into uncharted waters where great discoveries can be made.



Here at the Observatory we have a private collection of meteorites of inestimable scientific value, and you are lucky to be able to see it because it is not open to the public.



It was collected over a century ago by a Frenchman, the Marquis of Mauroy, and was donated to the Vatican by his widowed wife in 1935. It consists of over a 1,000 specimens.



What can we learn form these unearthly objects?



Extremely valuable information regarding the genesis and evolution of our solar system. They offer us a window into an unimaginably distant past that can be only expressed in exponential figures: 4.5 x 10⁹ years ago, that is, 4.5 thousand million years ago! It was then that our solar system first came into being.



Meteorites can also shed light on asteroids, those small bodies that are larger than meteorites, but smaller than planets, which are mainly found between Mars and Jupiter. Meteorites can also give us some information on the planet Mars and the Moon. The results of our studies on them add weight to the possibility of life on other planets.





Aliens and Salvation





The Church teaches that man is the son of God. If aliens really do exists are we to regard them as our brothers?



We are all God’s creatures. According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, any being gifted with consciousness of others and with self-consciousness, and who is free to love or to reject others, has all the fundamental characteristics of the human soul, and would therefore be made ‘in the image and likeness of God’.



This means that if extraterrestrials had these qualities of ‘intelligence’ and ‘free will’, they would not only be our ‘brothers’ but also co-sharers with us in God’s ‘image and likeness’.





What about Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross? How do extraterrestrials fit into all this?



At the moment we know absolutely nothing about the nature and history of these inhabitants from outer space, let alone if they exist. The only thing that is certain is that the centre of our faith is that Jesus is the Son of God, that He became man, and that through Him and because of Him everything was created. Therefore every created thing and being, every free and intelligent being in the universe has a direct and fundamental connection with creation as an act of God, and with the salvation event which takes place in Christ.