Francis doesn’t rule out ETs

Pope Francis has said that he has no idea whether there is intelligent life on other planets, but that we need to “stick to what the scientists tell us” on the question, writes James Roberts.

In an interview with Paris Match last week, the Pope was asked whether, following Nasa’s discovery last July of a new planet, Kepler-452b, which resembles Earth in its dimensions and characteristics, he thought there could be thinking beings elsewhere in the universe.

“Honestly I wouldn’t know how to answer,” the Pope replied, adding that “until America was discovered, we thought it didn’t exist, and instead it existed.

“But in every case I think that we should stick to what the scientists tell us, still aware that the Creator is infinitely greater than our knowledge,” he continued. Francis said the one thing he is sure about is that the universe “is not the result of chance or chaos”, but rather of divine intelligence. It is the result “of the love of God who created us, who desired us”.

The interview was timed to coincide with the canonisation on 18 October of Louis and Zélie Martin, the parents of St Thérèse of Lisieux. Pope Francis spoke about the reasons behind his decision to canonise the Martins – the first married couple to be canonised together. Throughout their life, he said, the Martins “gave witness to the beauty of faith in Jesus, both inside and outside of their home”.

At a time when “a certain bourgeois ethics” despised the poor with the excuse of maintaining a kind of decorum, the Martins instead opened their hearts and doors to them, he said.