Posted by Terry Nelson on May 14th, 2008
Doctor Who? Father Jose Gabriel Funes and aliens.
The interview in the Vatican newspaper was fun for me - I love the Little Prince and small planets - my own little planet is a wonderful place. That said - some people may think I was dissing the astronomer priest. Not. To me it is just common sense - the cosmos is a big place. Henry Karlson, one of my favorite contributors at Vox Nova, has evidence the priest’s view is not some new age theory at all. Read his post, “When the news is not news.”
I find it interesting however, that we earthlings can become so preoccupied with aliens in outer space when we have such obvious difficulties with immigration issues involving legal and illegal aliens from other countries. In a world where war and killing one another seems to be our chief method of survival. We speculate on extraterrestrial life while we ignore the stranger on the street and allow whole nations to be exterminated by genocide. Isn’t that the queerest? (Yeah, don’t get me started.)
Posted by Terry Nelson on May 14th, 2008
Christ as the “Little Prince” maybe?
Vatican City, May 13, 2008 / 01:59 pm (CNA).- The Director of the Vatican’s Observatory, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, said in an interview with the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, that believing in the possible existence of extraterrestrial life is not opposed to Catholic doctrine.
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.” - Sante Pater
“Oprah! Get Saint-Exupery on the line!”
(Or maybe he’s been reincarnated.) Doesn’t Fr. Funes’ statement remind you of the wonderful novella “The Little Prince” by Antoine Saint-Exupery? The different planets, the sheep, the rose… the Little Prince dies in the end to return to his planet. “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”- said the fox to the Little Prince.
It could happen.
