Long forgotten are all the other ancient heresies condemned by the Fathers over the first three centuries of the Catholic Church; an era recalled and described in books written by Professor A. A. Martinez who tells us ‘Saint Hippolytus [170-235AD], a martyred Christian theologian] ridiculed the doctrine of infinitely many suns, moons and worlds, some inhabited.’ The Professor tells us: ‘around 260CE Pope Dionysus of Alexandria wrote a tract against the Epicureans mainly to criticize their theory that all things were composed of atoms without divine Providence.’ Professor Martinez’s books show that Pope Dionysus’s booklet was directed against the (now modern) theory that atoms clash and combine by chance ‘and thus gradually form this world and all objects in it; and more, that they construct infinite worlds.’ The study also identifies many Church Fathers who condemned the claim that there are many worlds like ours. Martinez records ‘in 384CE’ Philaster, Bishop of Brescia condemned the ‘heresy that says worlds are infinite and innumerable…whereas Scripture teaches us that it is one.’ In 402 St Jerome complained that one of the most heretical claims of all was that ‘worlds are innumerable.’ St. Augustine even composed a list of 88 such heresies; the 77th was innumerable worlds.’
‘Other theologians too cited this heresy for centuries. They explained the problem, “we cannot assert that there exist two or many worlds, since neither do we assert two or many Christs [the only begotten son]” Aristotle had insisted that many worlds cannot exist since it would require more than one First Cause.’-- Prof. A. Martinez.
With their abandoning of the supernatural geocentric Creation by God in 1820, for an evolved solar system, Churchmen opened up the plausibility of other such Pythagorean errors. In 1600 Bruno was burned at the stake for spreading such beliefs. Four hundred year later, in 2009, the Vatican had begun hosting conferences with scientists and religious leaders discussing the implications for religion and human consciousness if extraterrestrial life is found on ‘numerous worlds.’ One statement was that aliens would be part of God’s Creation so would be regarded as our ‘extraterrestrial brothers.’ Here is another:
‘Father Funes described the discovery as ‘great news.’ Writing in the Vatican’s daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, he said: ‘Our galaxy contains more than a hundred billion stars. ‘Considering the number of exoplanets discovered, it seems that the vast majority of stars in our galaxy, at least potentially, can have planets where life could develop.’ He said that if there is intelligent life found on another planet, he does not see it as a contradiction to the Christian faith. He said: ‘The Bible is not a scientific book. If we look for scientific responses to our questions in the Bible, we are making a mistake. It is just over 380 years since the Catholic Church condemned Galileo for arguing that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. But it seems the Vatican has relaxed its view of mankind’s place in the cosmos and even believes there may be intelligent alien life out there. Astronomers at the Vatican Observatory, which has been studying the heavens since 1582, have said discoveries of new Earth-like planets have strengthened their belief that there could be life on other planets.’ ---Mailonline, 8th Feb, 2018.
In 2014, the Christian Post reported that the Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno president of the Vatican Observatory, proposed the eventual discovery of alien life forms after Pope Francis (2013-), speculating about alien life forms during Mass at the Vatican, used the analogy that even Martians, should they ever visit Earth, would be welcome to be baptised. Baptism of course is a sacrament that erases Original Sin inherited only by the descendants of Adam and Eve. Why then would a pope offer to baptise a Martian? To subject this sacrament to heretical science-fiction shows us the rotten fruit of the Galilean reformation.