I don’t know why I post this stuff. I am labeling it ‘fake news.’ I only do so as an exhibit A of man’s pride and stupidity (and I need a diversion). I just read an article about a lawyer who brought a case before the high court of the State of NY appealing for chimpanzees’ rights because, says he, they are persons. If he wins, then, next on the agenda, he plans on filing for the rights of elephants, for they, too, are very smart critters. And that is where New Yorker taxpayer money is going. Meanwhile, as you will see in the following article, Brother Consolmagno (our old star gazer friend from the Vatican Observatory), Michael Crowe from Notre Dame, Randall Smith from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, and Robert Fastiggi from Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit all summon their planetary expertise in alien matters to contribute words of wisdom on the possibility of intelligent life in this vast universe. And this at tax payers’ expense, mind you.
National Catholic Register, Nicolas W. Smith: Robert Fastiggi, a professor of systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, told the Register that Canon 864 of the Code of Canon Law currently restricts baptism to human beings. If adult extraterrestrials were baptized, “it would be to incorporate them into Christ and the Church and to forgive any prior sins.”
“Ultimately, it would depend upon the Magisterium of the Church to decide this matter, but I would urge caution,” he said. Need a break? Read the full piece here.
