“Aliens are my brothers”?

Father José Gabriel Funes, a renowned astronomer in the scientific community and director of the Vatican Observatory, gave an interview to the Vatican newspaper “Osservatore Romano” entitled “The Extraterrestrials Are My Brothers.”

Funes believes that it is possible to combine faith in God and in intelligent life on other planets. Moreover, he admits that aliens exist and that, like the inhabitants of earth, they were created by the Lord God, who is one for the entire Universe.

“St. Francis of Assisi,” says Fr. Funes, considered all earthly creatures to be our brothers and sisters. So why shouldn't people feel the same way about aliens? How about brothers? After all, they are part of the Divine plan.

The Russian Orthodox Church also does not rule out this possibility, although the church has not specifically considered this issue.

“Theoretically, we cannot deny that somewhere out there, in the depths of the Universe, there is intelligent life,” said Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk. “But the Bible doesn’t say anything about that.” There is not even a hint that God, in addition to humans, created aliens in his own image and likeness. Holy Scripture rather denies their existence.

Alexei Osipov, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, is more categorical: “From the point of view of Orthodox theology, there is no reason to talk about the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations that have intelligence and create something,”

he reported to the Interfax-Religion portal. “Secondly, there were a lot of people in the Church who achieved the highest degree of godlikeness and holiness, and not one of them ever talked about it (about extraterrestrial civilizations - “IF”), although they talked about so many other things,” — the agency’s interlocutor noted.