Days after the U.S. government released a new trove of documents and images related to UFOs — or UAPs, “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” — Vatican astronomer Br. Guy Consolmagno sat down with Catholic News Service for a wide-ranging conversation about aliens, theology, science, and the modern search for meaning.
Consolmagno, a Jesuit brother, planetary scientist, and former director of the Vatican Observatory, argues that the public fascination with extraterrestrials is not fundamentally about physics or government secrecy, but about something deeper: humanity’s fear of being alone in the universe and the growing collapse of trust in institutions, religion, and truth itself.
In this conversation, we discuss:
Why Br. Guy remains deeply skeptical of modern UFO claims and government disclosures
Whether belief in aliens has become a substitute religion in modern secular culture
The Catholic theological implications of discovering extraterrestrial life
Why the Church does not see intelligent alien life as a threat to Christianity
Elon Musk, SpaceX, and the modern myth of the technological savior
How conspiracy culture, Gnosticism, and distrust of institutions shape the UFO phenomenon
Pope Leo XIV’s message to the Vatican Observatory about truth, science, and despair
Why young scientists and STEM students are increasingly returning to faith
The relationship between astronomy, climate change, AI, and the spiritual crisis of modernity
Why Consolmagno believes science and religion ultimately share the same goal: the pursuit of truth
This is a conversation about UFOs, faith, technology, the future of humanity and what the search for life in the cosmos reveals about ourselves.