Pope Francis: Even Martians have a right to be baptized

[markomalley]

From AFPope Francis has declared everyone has the right to be baptised, even aliens should they come knocking on the church’s door.
Christians cannot “close the door” to all those who seek baptism even if they are “green men, with a long nose and big ears, like children draw,” the pope said at his daily mass on Monday, according to Vatican Radio.
Nice story from AFP, but too bad it is only tangentially related to the fact of the matter.

From Zenit:
The Spirit blows where it wills, but one of the most common temptations of those who have faith is to bar its path and drive it in one direction or another – a temptation that was not alien even in the early days of the Church, as the experience of Simon Peter in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles shows.

A community of pagans welcomes the proclamation of the Gospel and Peter is an eyewitness to the descent of the Holy Spirit on them. First, he hesitates to make contact with what he had always considered “unclean” and then he suffers harsh criticism from the Christians of Jerusalem, shocked by the fact that their leader had eaten with the “uncircumcised” and had even baptized them.

It’s a moment of internal crisis that Pope Francis recalls with a hint of irony:

“That was unthinkable. If, for example, an expedition of Martians were to come tomorrow, and some of them were to come 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?”

Peter understands his error when a vision enlightens him to a fundamental truth: that which has been purified by God cannot be called “profane” by anyone, the Pope explains. And in narrating these facts to the crowd that criticized him, the Apostle calms them all with this statement: “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?”
It would be nice, sometime, if the mainstream media made even a momentary effort at reporting the facts.

Don’t worry: I’m not holding my breath.

 

[DaveBj]

If Martians did exist, and if they did want to be baptized, they would have to come to Earth. Not a lot of liquid water on Mars

 

[GEddie]

If Martians did exist, and if they did want to be baptized, they would have to come to Earth. Not a lot of liquid water on Mars

Would there be a separate rubric for them, involving liquid CO[sub]2[/sub] ??



ICXC NIKA

 

[tvknight415]

Would there be a separate rubric for them, involving liquid CO[sub]2[/sub] ??



ICXC NIKA

Don’t think it’s THAT cold on Mars… at least anyplace little green men would live. :winter:

But, would the presider have to hold his hands in the Vulcan ‘live long and prosper’ pose?

:bigyikes:

 

[GEddie]

Don’t think it’s THAT cold on Mars… at least anyplace little green men would live. :winter:

But, would the presider have to hold his hands in the Vulcan ‘live long and prosper’ pose?

:bigyikes:

Don’t know about the hands.

But in South Mars, it is plenty cold enough for SOLID CO[sub]2[/sub], which forms part or all of the South Pole cap.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[lalindsay225]

You guys are too funny.

 

[brierpatch1974]

While I don’t believe in aliens personally they just may come here and not asked to be baptized but to tell us our religions are wrong and spread what they call the true word of God and baptize us…

 

[GEddie]

While I don’t believe in aliens personally they just may come here and not asked to be baptized but to tell us our religions are wrong and spread what they call the true word of God and baptize us…

Which is probably why so many people long for alien contact. They just want to see human life turned on its side.

ICXC NIKA

 

[Monkey1976]

Would there be a separate rubric for them, involving liquid CO[sub]2[/sub] ??



ICXC NIKA

That raises an interesting question - what would we do with an intelligent being for whom water is a deadly substance? Imagine the aliens from Signs - what could the Church do if one of them asked to be baptized?

 

[Thorns]

I find it kind of odd that the Pope would waste a homily on hypotheticals instead of focusing on the here and now and on people on this earth who need guidance. Forget about Martians. When they come we’ll deal with them.

 

[GEddie]

That raises an interesting question - what would we do with an intelligent being for whom water is a deadly substance? Imagine the aliens from Signs - what could the Church do if one of them asked to be baptized?

Depending on how toxic H[sub]2[/sub]O was to them, they couldn’t even make contact with our bodies without being poisoned, so baptism would be out.

Not to mention, why come into this atmosphere at all? To such beings, Mars, Venus or Titan would be more attractive.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[Rin]

That raises an interesting question - what would we do with an intelligent being for whom water is a deadly substance? Imagine the aliens from Signs - what could the Church do if one of them asked to be baptized?

Given the fact that demons flee from Holy Water, we would be forced to conclude those aliens were, indeed, demons.

 

[Ed_Silvia]

This leads to the question, how can the blood of Christ save non-humans if they don’t have original sin handed down from Adam their race is not fallen?

And don’t we already know angels, presumably not just the good ones, can take on solid form?

Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

 

[Rin]

I’m amused that you took me seriously

For the record: Yes, you are right, it would indeed. Though the movie version is so much more fun.

As to the question of baptism for aliens, I don’t really have an opinion, except I see a doctrinal problem with original sin.

And to revert to the thing with water, there is actually a statement from Rome explicitly saying that any use of other matter than water, even for convenience reasons (I assume avoiding the death of the alien would be convenient, right?), is invalid. This in response to a Norwegian bishop in the early middle ages, who got frustrated when all the holy water froze, so he petitioned for dispensation to baptize with honeymead. I think the same statement was repeated in Trent though, but still, the first time it was ever formally declared, was in response to said dubium.

So there are indeed problems to sort through, but I’m sure we’d find a way.

 

[Thorns]

Except if water was not used no valid baptism took place.

 

[mikekle]

I find it kind of odd that the Pope would waste a homily on hypotheticals instead of focusing on the here and now and on people on this earth who need guidance. Forget about Martians. When they come we’ll deal with them.

Did you ever stop to think that the pope may be saying things like this for a good reason, and maybe its not entirely hypothetical, after all, there has been alot of recent activity/chatter about extraterrestrial life among alot of people, some other countries are starting to release the long classified info they have on this topic, makes you wonder what is going on. I have a feeling those in power know more than they let on and something is probably close to happening in relation to aliens/ extraterrestrial life.

If you look up Senator Byrd from the early 1990s, he had then National security adviser Dick DaMato, look into the UFO issue, they literally found a ‘black arm’ of the US Govt that was responsible for keeping this type of info secret from the public and they spent alot of money to keep this secret going…dont believe me, Google it for yourself.

The real question is, why did go to such extremes to keep this a secret, what is it about the ETs that they dont want people to know…could they possibly be hostile to our way of life? In that case, then we should have started worrying about this back in the 1970s!

 

[Butaperson]

I find it kind of odd that the Pope would waste a homily on hypotheticals instead of focusing on the here and now and on people on this earth who need guidance. Forget about Martians. When they come we’ll deal with them.

He was using a metaphor to emphasize just how scandalous it seemed to be for Peter to baptize the uncircumcised.

 

[irenaeus1]

What would be the purpose of baptizing a Martian? They are not of the race of Adam, so would Martian’s be born in original sin? Would they be sinners guilty of personal sins? From what would they need to repent and to what would they need to turn and believe?

I believe the Pope perhaps meant this as hyperbole…

 

[GEddie]

Except if water was not used no valid baptism took place.

In which case, there would be no need at all for baptism.

Baptism is for human beings, because of our aqueous-phase bodies, and the symbolism of “burial” beneath water representing death (because both in death, and under water, there is no breathing).

Beings that neither breathe nor have aqueous bodies would have no need for baptism.

ICXC NIKA.

 

[mikekle]

Well, whatever the truth is about what the pope meant, I think the Vatican does indeed know more about the alien/UFO topic though, there has been too many people from the vatican talking about it in the past for there not be anything to it.