The Vatican Astronomer Who Would Baptize Aliens

The Catholic Church’s top astronomer says extraterrestrials would be children of God.

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The Catholic Church has been studying the stars since the 16th century. Now its newest astronomer is ready to welcome beings from those stars into the faith.

A Priest Among the Galaxies

Father Richard D’Souza took over as director of the Vatican Observatory in September 2025, with Pope Leo XIV making the appointment. His path to this position started in a way most scientists never experience. He was born in Pune, India in 1978, joined the Society of Jesus in 1996, and became a Jesuit priest in 2011. Between his birth and his entry into the Jesuits, his family faced upheaval that would shape his perspective on the world.
In 1990, when Father D’Souza was twelve years old, his family had to flee Kuwait during the Gulf War. They spent three weeks in a refugee camp in Jordan before they could return to India. Everything they owned fit into a few bags. The experience left marks that stayed with him into adulthood, giving him what he describes as a particular understanding of how volatile the Middle East can be.
His academic journey took him from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physics, to the University of Heidelberg in Germany for a master’s degree. At Heidelberg, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy. He finished his doctorate in astronomy at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich in 2016. His research zeroes in on what happens when galaxies merge and how those ancient collisions affect galaxies we see today, including the Milky Way.
The way Father D’Souza describes his work makes it sound almost archaeological. He studies the outer stellar halos of galaxies, which are essentially the remnants left behind after cosmic crashes that happened billions of years ago. By examining these halos, he can piece together the history of how galaxies accumulated mass over time. Much of his attention has focused on Andromeda, Earth’s neighboring galaxy. The stars that fell into Andromeda from other galaxies during mergers act like clues, revealing events that took place across unimaginable stretches of time.
He calls himself a galactic archaeologist, which fits. Just as archaeologists dig through layers of earth to understand human history, Father D’Souza examines layers of starlight to understand galactic history. The difference is that his archaeological sites are millions of light-years away.

An Asteroid Bearing His Name

In 2012, two of his colleagues, K. Cernis and R.P. Boyle, discovered an asteroid using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope on Mount Graham. They named it 27397 D’Souza. The rock measures roughly the size of Manhattan and makes its orbit in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Getting an asteroid named after you requires patience. The object has to be observed long enough for astronomers to determine its orbit with precision, which can take several years. Only after that does it receive a permanent designation number, and only then can the discoverer suggest a name for approval.
Father D’Souza noted something interesting about the naming conventions in astronomy. Asteroids stand alone as the only celestial objects that can be named after people. He has discovered galaxies during his research, but the rules prevent him from naming them after himself or anyone else. Those conventions exist for good reasons, but they create an odd situation where a priest can have his name attached to a space rock but not to an entire galaxy. He joins a group of more than 30 Jesuits who have had asteroids named in their honor.

The Question of Alien Baptism

Father D’Souza doesn’t dance around the big question. He acknowledges straight away that discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life would shake both religion and human history to their foundations. The implications would force theology to reconsider fundamental assumptions about creation and humanity’s place in it. Religions would need to reimagine themselves to account for the existence of other intelligent beings.
His position remains clear despite these complications. Extraterrestrials would be part of God’s creation. That makes them children of God. As children of God, they would be entitled to join the faith. So yes, he would perform an alien baptism.
The practical obstacles present their own challenges. The Catholic Church requires baptism to be conducted in person, not remotely. This creates an obvious logistical problem when dealing with beings from another star system. The question becomes how humans would physically reach them or how they would reach us. These aren’t trivial problems to solve. Space travel across interstellar distances remains firmly in the realm of theoretical physics. Until someone figures out faster-than-light travel or generation ships that can function for centuries, baptizing aliens would require the aliens to come to us. And if they have that technology, the power dynamic shifts considerably.
Still, Father D’Souza frames these as solvable logistical problems rather than theological impossibilities. The mechanics of reaching each other would need to be worked out before any baptismal ceremony could happen, but the theological framework already exists to welcome them.
Father D’Souza has built an impressive scientific career. He has published in numerous international scientific journals and maintains membership in several international collaborations, including the International Astronomical Union. His appointment as director came after Brother Guy Consolmagno, an American Jesuit from Detroit, completed his ten-year mandate in September 2025. Father D’Souza became the first Indian to hold the position, a fact that generated considerable pride in his homeland.

The Vatican’s History with Extraterrestrials

Father D’Souza isn’t breaking new ground by discussing alien baptism. Vatican astronomers have been engaging with these questions for decades, though their openness about it might surprise people who assume religious institutions would find extraterrestrial life threatening.
Back in 2008, Jesuit Father José Funes served as director of the Vatican Observatory. In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican’s daily newspaper, Father Funes made an argument that caught attention worldwide. He said Christians should think of alien life as an “extraterrestrial brother” and recognize it as part of God’s creation. He was building on ideas from St. Francis of Assisi, who called earthly creatures brothers and sisters. If that framework works for animals on Earth, why wouldn’t it extend to intelligent beings from other worlds?
Father Funes went further, suggesting that extraterrestrial beings might not need redemption at all. They could have remained in full friendship with their creator. He referenced the Gospel parable of the lost sheep, where the shepherd leaves ninety-nine sheep to search for the one that wandered off. Humanity might be that lost sheep, the sinners who need a pastor, while other intelligent beings might represent the ninety-nine who never strayed. The theory positions humans as spiritually exceptional, but not necessarily in a flattering way.
Brother Guy Consolmagno, who served as director immediately before Father D’Souza, told U.S. Catholic magazine back in 2002 that he would happily baptize aliens if they wanted it. He put it simply: any entity has a soul, regardless of how many tentacles it has. That straightforward acceptance reflects a broader pattern in Vatican Observatory thinking.
The observatory itself dates back to 1891, when Pope Leo XIII issued a document called “Ut Mysticam.” The pope laid out the mission clearly: the observatory would demonstrate that the Church and her leaders are not opposed to true and solid science, whether human or divine. Instead, they embrace it, encourage it, and promote it with full dedication. Popes actually had observatories built at the Vatican much earlier, going back to the 16th century. They needed to understand the cosmic calendar to establish dates for Easter that would be recognized everywhere.
1891 places the observatory’s founding at a moment when tensions between science and religion were running high in Europe. The Church had been criticized for its historical treatment of scientists, particularly Galileo. Establishing a serious astronomical research institution sent a message about the Church’s commitment to scientific inquiry.
Today, Vatican Observatory astronomers pursue an impressively broad research agenda. They study meteorites, near-earth objects, planets, extra-solar planetary systems, stars and stellar structure, galaxies, cosmology, quantum gravity, and the Big Bang. That range covers everything from rocks falling to Earth to the origin of the universe itself.

Science and Faith at the Crossroads

The Vatican Observatory operates within a long Jesuit tradition. Jesuit spirituality is incarnational, meaning it emphasizes God’s presence in the physical world. This leads to a core principle: find God in all things. For a Jesuit scientist, studying the universe becomes a way of understanding creation. The telescope doesn’t threaten faith. It deepens it by revealing more of what exists to be marveled at.
Father D’Souza points out something that often gets overlooked in debates about science and religion. The Big Bang theory came from a Belgian Catholic priest named Father Georges Lemaître, who proposed it in 1927. Atheist scientists initially belittled Lemaître’s ideas. The stereotype of religious figures opposing scientific progress flips entirely in this case. A priest developed the theory that explained the origin of the universe, and secular scientists resisted it.
Father D’Souza frames his own position carefully. Science cannot prove that God exists. Science also cannot exclude the possibility that God exists. This leaves the question in the territory of faith rather than empirical investigation. He believes in a benevolent Creator behind everything, but he arrived at that belief through faith, not through his research on galaxy mergers.
The observatory maintains its place in international scientific collaborations. These projects often involve hundreds of scientists working with instruments that cost millions of euros. Vatican astronomers contribute alongside researchers from secular institutions, participating in the same peer review processes and publishing in the same journals. Their religious affiliation doesn’t separate them from mainstream science. If anything, it adds another dimension to their work.
The original observatory in Castel Gandolfo hasn’t been used for serious scientific observations since the 1980s. Rome’s urban sprawl and light pollution made it impractical. Now Vatican astronomers do much of their work near Tucson, Arizona, using the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. The move from Italy to the Arizona desert was practical rather than symbolic, but it illustrates how the institution adapts to changing conditions while maintaining its core mission.

The Search for Life Beyond Earth

Father D’Souza makes a prediction about the timeline for discovering extraterrestrial life. He expects scientists will determine whether alien life exists within the next 30 years. His reasoning comes down to the pace of technological advancement. Science is pushing hard toward that goal, developing new instruments and methods that can detect biosignatures across vast distances.
He separates two questions that often get conflated. First: does life exist elsewhere? Second: is that life intelligent? The first question might get answered relatively soon. The second remains much more uncertain.
He notes something that tempers enthusiasm about imminent contact. Humans have been looking for signals from outer space for decades. Over the last 30 years, none have been found. The silence doesn’t prove anything definitive. Space is incomprehensibly vast, and our listening has covered only a tiny fraction of it. But the absence of detected signals so far suggests that if intelligent life exists out there, it either isn’t broadcasting, isn’t close enough for us to hear, or exists in a form we haven’t thought to look for.
Father Funes, in his 2008 interview, described how astronomers were already actively seeking biomarkers in the spectrum analysis of other stars and planets. These potential forms of life might not resemble Earth life at all. They could include organisms that have no need for oxygen or hydrogen. This widens the search considerably but also makes it more complex. Looking for life that resembles Earth life provides clear targets. Looking for any possible form of life requires imagining biochemistries that might function on completely different principles.
The Catholic Church’s approach to these questions emphasizes intellectual curiosity over defensiveness. Church officials and Vatican astronomers acknowledge that discovering extraterrestrial life would raise profound questions. They don’t claim to have all the answers worked out in advance. But they maintain that such a discovery wouldn’t invalidate the fundamental truths of their faith. Instead, it would expand the context in which those truths need to be understood.
This represents a significant shift from historical patterns. Religious institutions have sometimes responded to scientific discoveries by feeling threatened. The initial reaction to heliocentrism, to evolution, to the age of the Earth all followed patterns of resistance before eventual acceptance by most (but not all). Vatican astronomers are trying to get ahead of that pattern with extraterrestrial life. By engaging with the question now, while it remains hypothetical, they’re building a theological framework that can accommodate the discovery if it happens.
The discovery would invite deeper reflection on several concepts that sit at the heart of Catholic theology. The universality of God’s love. The infinite scope of creation. The cosmic significance of religious truth. These ideas already exist within Church teaching, but they would need to be reconsidered and expanded to account for intelligent beings that developed entirely separately from humanity.
Father D’Souza’s role places him at a unique intersection. He spends his days analyzing data from telescopes, studying how galaxies formed billions of years ago. He publishes in peer-reviewed journals and collaborates with astronomers from around the world. He also serves as a priest, guiding a religious community and considering theological questions. His willingness to baptize an alien isn’t a publicity stunt or a thought experiment. It reflects the Vatican’s genuine commitment to engaging with questions that previous generations could barely imagine asking.
The Vatican Observatory employs professional astronomers doing real science. They contribute to humanity’s understanding of the universe. And they remain ready to adjust their theological frameworks if the universe turns out to be even stranger and more populated than we currently imagine.
The question of whether we’re alone in the universe remains unanswered. But if that answer eventually turns out to be no, the Catholic Church has astronomers prepared to think through what that means, both scientifically and spiritually. And at least one of those astronomers has already decided he would perform a baptism for a being from the stars, logistics permitting.

References

Fr Richard D’Souza S.J. is new Director of Vatican Observatory – Vatican News
Vatican Observatory – Rev. Richard A. D’Souza, S.J.
Interview with the new Director of the Vatican Observatory, Father Richard D’Souza, S.J.
Pope Leo XIV appoints new director of the Vatican Observatory – Catholic News Agency
Jesuit astronomer works to unravel the mysteries of galactic evolution – Crux
Pope Leos astronomer says he would baptize space aliens into Catholic Church – Irish Star
Vatican astronomer says if aliens exist, they may not need redemption – Catholic Review
Believing in aliens not opposed to Christianity, Vatican’s top astronomer says – Catholic News Agency
Could Catholicism handle the discovery of extraterrestrial life – Crux
Vatican Observatory’s new head talks wars, galaxies, and humanity’s fate – The Pillar
Pope’s astronomer: I would baptise an alien – Yahoo News
Vatican Considers Possibility of Aliens – CBS News

NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.