The Pope could always check with certain members of his staff....
Posted on 05/13/2014 9:35:11 AM PDT by marthemaria
Pope Francis would absolutely baptize an alien from Mars, if one showed up at the Vatican and asked for it. During his weekly homily on Monday, Franics said that aliens — which he imagines could be "Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them" — should be baptized just like anyone else who asks for it, because it's not up to any human to decide who should receive the Holy Spirit.
In other words: if God prompts some Martians to come to Earth, find the Pope, and say "we want in on this Catholicism thing." The pope would probably say "OK. cool." But probably in Latin.
Francis laid out the hypothetical situation as part of a discussion of the early Church's baptizing of Gentiles. Basically, the earliest Church contained some tension over whether there was any difference between the very early Jewish followers of Christ, and Gentiles who converted from paganism to Christianity, who would be considered "unclean" by the standards of Jewish law. Peter eventually persuades his followers that everyone is open to becoming Christian by saying, "If then God gave them the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?"
So here's how Francis tried to illustrate that point on Monday, with a much more modern example:
That was unthinkable. If – for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen?"
What would happen? They'd get baptized, that's what would happen. He goes on:
"When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, 'No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, lets do it this way'... Who are we to close doors? In the early Church, even today, there is the ministry of the ostiary [usher]. And what did the ostiary do? He opened the door, received the people, allowed them to pass. But it was never the ministry of the closed door, never."
The Vatican's astronomer — the same one who dismissed 'Intelligent Design' as 'bad theology' — said in 2010 that he'd baptize an alien because "any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul." But, again, only if they request it. So glad that's settled. Now all we have to do is wait.
A childrens’ book, is how you back that up?
This has no application to someone not of this earth.
Does Francis speak Martian?
Doesn’t that part of the bible just cover earth?
I think we should call Benedict XVI back from retirement.
Don’t speak with such certainty about things like that. It sounds too much like the government officials who wanted to shut down the Patent Office after the Steam Engine was invented, since they thought everything that could be invented already was.
What we DON’T know about space travel is probably enormous compared to what we do know.
And the math for gravitational travel (instantaneous point to point) does exist. Wormholes are more than a theoretical construct.
We just don’t know how to make and control them yet
[But I am biased- I believe Bob Lazaar’s story about the gravitational drives on the alien spacecraft he worked on at Groom Lake (Area 51)]
Well, he is, after all, infallible....
I wish they’d stop repeating parts of his daily homily as something important. It is, but no more than any other priest’s homilies.
I would not automatically assume that the Pope’s words have a political agenda regarding this silly line of questioning. Remember his words are translated into English by journalists…
Also, everyone on planet Earth can be baptized into the Catholic church regardless of race or country…I assume that you are not insinuating that people of certain races shouldn’t be baptized.
I am in disagreement with Pope Francis’ Socialism, but on other issues, he has a bit of real world about him.
Everything is easier for aliens than for my own kids.
Good question, Mystery Babylon. Would he baptize extra dimensional beings aka demons too? How could he tell the difference? Look it up in his big book of Roman law?
Either follow Yehushua, or follow the Pope. It's not possible to follow two leaders.
Exactly. The bible is about Man’s relationship with God and man’s relationship with his fellow man. Its message is for no one else. Those that are not human and or not of this world are not in that club.
Are the Martians sinners? If not, are there are other reasons to baptize them?
Can Martians be saved by a Human savior? Can He save only those of the Human species, or any Rational Animal of any species?
While the Pope and the world are talking about Martians, Cardinal Wuerl and most other American bishops continue to insist that Holy Communion must be given to pro-abortion politicians, but must be denied to divorced-and-remarried people. In other words, the sweetest, nicest divorced-and-remarried person you know is a worse sinner than Nancy Pelosi.
The Pope could always check with certain members of his staff....
ok, thanx
You need to learn what an “undistributed middle” is.
If I tell you that squirrels have a tail, would you then say: “And so, if any animal isn’t a squirrel, it doesn’t have a tail?”
In 1937, Pope Pius XI had the encyclical “Mit Brenender Sorge” smuggled into Germany.
In 2014, with America being taken over by a fascist dictatorship, the Pope is talking about Martians.
This is the Baby Talk Papacy.
We’re not really talking about something tangible, like squirrel tails, are we.
All rational animals, on whatever planet, are bound by the same moral law as humans. All of them would have the same potential for some relationship with God as humans.
It is possible, if such rational animals exist, that some of them have never sinned.
I think I liked the other Pope better—Ratzenberger?
He liked beer & pretzels and didn’t seem to be crazy.
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