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The Pope’s new astronomer says he would baptise an alien. Father Richard D'Souza conceded religion would have to ‘reimagine itself’ if mankind has first contact with ET. But he believes ET would be one of God’s creatures and as such would be entitled to join the faith. The cleric has just been appointed chief astronomer to Pope Leo XIV . His role as the new director of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo near Rome puts him at the spot where religious belief and scientific understanding meet. Father Richard, 47, accepted finding intelligent extraterrestrial life would have a seismic impact on religion and the history of mankind. But he would welcome aliens into the Catholic church. Asked if he would perform an alien baptism he replied: “Yes, yes. Theology would have to reimagine itself and take into consideration these other beings. “They are all part of God's creation. “They would be children of God. “I believe in a benevolent Creator. He is behind everything.” He said there would be some practical hurdles to overcome before he could carry out the ceremony.. “We do believe that baptism has to be in presence,” he said. “The question would be how to reach them or how they would reach us. “These are the practical problems to solve before we even talk about baptism.” The India-born cleric studied theology and philosophy before being ordained as Jesuit priest in 2011. He studied for a degree in physics and a master's at Heidelberg University before joining a post-doctoral programme at Michigan University. Since joining the Vatican Observatory in 2016 he has published papers in numerous scientific journals and now has an asteroid named after him. The vast rock, said to be the size of Manhattan, is called D'Souza 27397 and is orbiting around the Solar System's asteroid belt somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. Asked how it felt to have his name used he said: “It was a nice feeling, it is an honour. “Asteroids are the only things you can name after a person. “I have discovered galaxies but I can't name them after myself or indeed anybody else. That's the convention.” Father D’Souza said his new role like that of an Indiana Jones-style explorer. “I become a galactic archaeologist and I try to infer the past history of a galaxy,” he said. As such he said it was important to address the issue of aliens as the hunt for ET gathers pace around the world. He expects boffins to be able to discover if alien life exists ‘in the next 30 years’ because ‘science is pushing for that’. But he said whether or not that was ‘intelligent life’ was ‘another question’. “We have historically looked for signals coming from outer space and over the last 30 years we have found none. None,” he added.
