These days, the Vatican says that it's OK to believe in extra-terrestrial aliens. The Vatican is not the only bastion of conservatism to have come out with such a policy in recent years. Both the British and the French governments have now released their extensive files on sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects.

Governments have been shy of talking about UFOs ever since the national panic that Orson Welles caused in America in 1938 when he read out an adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel, 'The War of the Worlds' over the radio. The broadcast lasted 60 minutes without commercial interruption and was formatted as a series of news broadcasts about the progress of an ongoing alien invasion of Earth.

People who tuned into the radio show after the initial announcement about it being fictional were swept up into a panic that quickly spread across the country. The drama hit such a public nerve in those tense and anxious days leading up to World War II that millions of listeners became panic-stricken. The fallout in the press was enormous, with 12,500 newspaper articles appearing about this episode over the next month.

For decades since then, the fear of public panic in the face of a potential mass alien landing has helped to keep governments quiet about UFO incidents. There was also the nagging fear in the minds of politicians that, if extra-terrestrials landed and spoke words of wisdom, people might start following the ETs instead of the politicians. That fear has since been largely eclipsed by the fact that, today, very few people listen to politicians anyway!

In the Vatican newspaper, the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones. So, he said, believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said. "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of Creation."

In the interview for the newspaper article, Funes said that such a notion "doesn't contradict our faith" because aliens would still be God's creatures. Ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom.

Funes said science, especially astronomy, does not contradict religion, touching on a theme of the (2005-13) Pope, Benedict XVI, who has made exploring the relationship between faith and reason a key aspect of his papacy. The Vatican Observatory has made great efforts to bridge the gap between religion and science. It was founded in 1891 and is based in Castel Gandolfo, a lakeside town in the hills outside Rome. The Vatican Observatory also has a team which conducts research at the University of Arizona observatory in Tucson.

Funes went on to say that the Bible "is not a science book," adding that he believes the Big Bang theory is the most "reasonable" explanation for the creation of the universe. The theory says the universe began billions of years ago in the explosion of a single, super-dense point that contained all matter. But, he said, such a beginning to the universe would have been the work of God as "God is the creator of the universe and we are not the result of chance."

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo's persecution 400 years ago, saying the incident has "caused wounds." In 1633, the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe. Galileo was imprisoned, and later released to spend his final years under house arrest.

"The church has somehow recognized its mistakes," he said. "Maybe it could have done it better, but now it's time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration." Pope John Paul declared in 1992 that the ruling against Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

From this recent news article, it would seem that the Vatican is now bridging the gap between science and religion in an attempt to become aligned with the wider view of reality presented by modern scientific knowledge. Where this will eventually lead is anyone's guess, but an evolving consciousness in humanity makes plenty of room for the potential for philosophical reform in traditional areas.

It is heartening to see that, today, the times certainly are a-changing.