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• May 14, 2008 7:44 pm US/Central
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  Vatican: Belief In Extraterrestrials Is OK

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Vatican: Belief In Extraterrestrials Is OK

 CBS News Interactive: Meteorites, Comets And Asteroids

(CBS 11 News) The Vatican has turned the religious world on its ear by saying that the belief in aliens does not contradict the Catholic faith.

Reverend Jose Gabriel Funes, the Vatican's Chief Astronomer, said Tuesday that the notion there could be other forms of intelligent life in the universe, "doesn't contradict our faith."

"Anything is possible with God, right? That's basically what they teach us," said North Texan Shawn Steinke. "I think it's a good move on the Catholic Church."

In an interview for the Vatican newspaper entitled "The Extraterrestrial Is My Brother," the Jesuit Director of the Vatican Observatory Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes said that ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits on God's creative freedom."

All of this openness seems to be catching on as it was also announced Tuesday that Great Britain is declassifying documents on hundreds of UFO sightings.

"The most extraordinary UFO case I investigated personally was in March 1993 when a vast triangular-shaped UFO flew over two military bases and was seen by numerous police witnesses and air force officers," said Nike Pope, a former ministry of defense employee. "They described this craft moving from a virtual hover to a speed many times that of a fast jet in an instant, and these were military witnesses."

The reports were taken so seriously they were documented by the British Ministry of Defense and have now been revealed after a freedom of information request by UFO researchers.

"People will always suspect there are even more secret files salted away somewhere else, but you can never disprove that kind of conspiracy theory," said Dr. David Clarke, Sheffield Hallam University. "I would just suggest that those files are out there now, you can see them on the national archives website. Go and look for yourself, and make your own mind up."

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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