And why not? My friend Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Jesuit astronomer and MIT grad who works at the Vatican observatory (and who surprised Stephen Colbert with his common sense about the Second Person of the Trinity) said he was "comfortable" with the idea of baptizing an alien. At the opening of the British Science Festival (somewhat overshadowed by the visit of Guy's boss to the country) Consolmagno fielded the inevitable question about aliens.
He said he was "comfortable" with the idea of alien life and asked if he would baptise an alien, he replied "Only if they asked."
"I’d be delighted if we found life elsewhere and delighted if we found intelligent life elsewhere," he said. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it - when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.
“God is bigger than just humanity. God is also the god of angels." He said the characteristics synonymous with having a soul - intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions may not be unique to humans. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has has a soul," he said.
Read the rest here.
James Martin, SJ
I do have one question, though: can a vowed brother conduct baptisms?
In another forum, we recently had a discussion of Original Sin, and it seemed to me the theories had to either ignore long-standing Church teaching, on the one hand, or modern science, on the other. I did learn that the Orthodox Church gets along quite well without the idea Original Sin as it is understood in Catholicism.
Actually, I looked this up on Wikipedia, but they gave a link to a web site that had the information that follows.
CHAPTER II : THE MINISTER OF ANOINTING OF THE SICK
Can. 1003 §1 Every priest, but only a priest, can validly administer the anointing of the sick.
§2 All priests to whom has been committed the care of souls, have the obligation and the right to administer the anointing of the sick to those of the faithful entrusted to their pastoral care. For a reasonable cause, any other priest may administer this sacrament if he has the consent, at least presumed, of the aforementioned priest.
§3 Any priest may carry the holy oil with him, so that in a case of necessity he can administer the sacrament of anointing of the sick.
The Sick and the Faithful may be seen on CBS weekday afternoons following The Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful.
I have nothing against aliens but salvation in Christ seems to be an earthling story. I'd love to hear alien salvation stories.
In an emergency o?ne does not need to be a baptized Christian to baptize. Anyone can baptize in an emergency: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, male, female. It makes no difference. They need only have the intention to perform the ritual and carry it out in the prescribed manner. http://www.aboutcatholics.com/worship/baptism/
I thought you were wrong about an unbaptized person being able to baptize in an emergency, and when I checked the site you linked to, I thought it was wrong. But here it is from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You get a gold star!
1256 The ordinary ministers of Baptism are the bishop and priest and, in the Latin Church, also the deacon. In case of necessity, anyone, even a nonbaptized person, with the required intention, can baptize, by using the Trinitarian baptismal formula. The intention required is to will to do what the church does when she baptizes. The Church finds the reason for this possibility in the universal saving will of God and the necessity of Baptism for salvation.