IN A RECENT homily, Pope Francis used a colourful image to describe how the Early Church reacted when Gentiles approached the Apostles and asked to be baptised. Imagine, he suggested, if “a Martian with a big nose and big ears came up and asked for baptism. What would you do?” Naturally, the press decided that the Pope had just endorsed extraterrestrial baptisms. Journalists added a few choice links to similar quotes of mine from years ago.I can’t complain, really. “Would you baptise an extraterrestrial?” is a wonderful starting place to explore the meaning of baptism and redemption. I used the analogy myself just last week, addressing the graduating class of Georgetown University, where my final exhortation was to “be prepared to be surprised”. (