Rebecca Wilson and Jim Naughton (of Canticle Communications, a strategic communications firm working with faith-based organizations and their friends) run a forum on using social media to create community for the Church Divinity School of the Pacific:
Br Guy Consolmagno SJ, Jesuit brother and president of the Vatican Observatory Foundation, discusses the idea of extraterrestrials
The alien encounter thing, should it come to pass, will be interesting for Christianity where the faith is based in the risen and ascended man Jesus Christ who we accept is God’s only begotten son. Superficially that would make the idea of other advanced (whatever that may mean) civilisations sharing in the redemption of mankind problematic.
Still, I can’t help wondering what is out there when I look at the heavens through my telescope. The night sky is magnificent – the naked eye sees but a fraction of what even a modest telescope reveals. It may be that we are incredibly special, a one-off.
I’m not sure, Brown, why you see this as ‘problematic’. It has never been ‘problematic’ previously when Christians have encountered advanced civilisations, albeit on this planet. Blessings.