Exo-Vaticana: Examining the Fatima “Miracle of the Sun”

I discuss the Fatima miracle of the sun in ufological terms. This connection follows logically from the fact that the sun’s movement would upset the solar system to such a degree that the earth would be flung from its normal orbit exterminating life on earth. This strongly infers a local event to Fatima.

Eyewitness Testimonies of the Event as Taken from Heavenly Lights:

JOSE’ PROENCE DE ALMEIDA GARRET, A LAWYER:
Moments before, the sun had broken overhead through a dense layer of clouds that would have otherwise hidden it, allowing it to shine clearly and intensely. I turned toward that magnet that attracted every gaze, and I could see that it was similar to a disk with a distinct and lively border, luminous and lucent, but harmless.
NEWSPAPER, BEIRA BAIZA:
The sun uncovered itself, and had a diverse gradation, appearing sometimes like a solar globe…enclosed by an aureole of flames, other times a metallic disk as if of silver.
MARIO GOHINO, AN ENGINEER:
In a radiant sky, the Sun could be looked at straight-on and with eyes wide open, without blinking, as if we were looking at a disk of polished glass illuminated from behind, with a rainbow of iridescence on its periphery, seeming to have a rotating movement.… And the Sun did not have the brilliance that hurt our eyes on normal days, as it was a majestic disk, magnetic, which attracted us and sort of revolved in the immense sky.…
RAIO DE LUZ, A RELIGIOUS PERIODICAL OF THE TIME:
Suddenly a luminous disk, the size of a great host, but one which could be gazed upon as one gazes at the moon, appeared, as if it stood out from the Sun, descending visibly…
GILBERTO DOS SANTOS:
I saw the Sun, seeming a dull, silver disk, but more luminous than the moon.
MARIA ROMANA:
The Sun gave the appearance of a globe of dull silver fire, surrounded by a very dark purplish disk.
ANA MARIA CAMARA:
I saw a very clear, silvery blue disk, without rays…

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Sheehan Controverts Consolmagno’s “No Vatican UFO Secrets” Claim

Attorney Daniel Sheehan, former lead counsel for the Jesuit order in America, testifies about the Vatican concealing UFO information as well as US government classified photos and records of a flying saucer crash and connections to churches around the world. Of course this controverts recent obfuscation by VORG astronomer Guy Conslomagno who claims “there are no Vatican UFO secrets.” If so, then why the refusal to release the requested files to the Carter administration described in this sworn testimony? Is Brother Guy hiding something?

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Book Review: To Change the World by James Davison Hunter

By Cris Putnam
toChangeTheWorldBookProbably one of the most important books about Christianity and culture in the last decade is James Hunter’s To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. Writing as a Christian and a social scientist, he states his thesis, “I contend that the dominant ways of thinking about culture and cultural change are flawed, for they are based on both specious social science and problematic theology.”[1] I agree with his tenet that cultural change is usually “top down” by elites rather than “bottom up” by ordinary citizens and this is problematic for the strategies expressed by Colson and the Truth Project and even worse for those who couple Christianity to politics. He observes, “Speaking as a Christian myself, contemporary Christian understandings of power and politics are a very large part of what has made contemporary Christianity in America appalling, irrelevant, and ineffective—part and parcel of the worst elements of our late-modern culture today, rather than a healthy alternative to it.”[2] In my own conversations and interactions, I have found this to be the case. He suggests most have misunderstood what culture is and how it works. Hunter lists seven propositions concerning culture:

Proposition one: culture is a system of truth claims and moral obligations. For the most part, I agree with his assessment. I acknowledge that various cultures filter their morals through their beliefs, myths and old adages so they are expressed in different ways and, to that extent, I grant the authors hypothesis. However, I am concerned by the implied suggestion that right and wrong are a product of culture rather than a reflection transcendent objective moral law. Although I doubt it is his intention, it seems relativistic.

Proposition two: culture is a product of history. I agree with this one without qualification. It offers a lot explanatory power for why cultural change is so difficult. Cultural behaviors and norms are engrained by tradition and things like nationality which have a rich history.

Proposition three: culture is intrinsically dialectical. Hunter contends, “culture is as much an infrastructure as it is ideas.”[3] I agree with this as well and I think this is his most potent criticism of the worldview approach. For instance, I do not believe evangelical activism through the Republican Party is effective because the infrastructure of the political system is corrupted by influence peddling and what amounts to bribery by lobbyists. If we want policy to move toward biblical values, then the infrastructure should be changed in that direction first. Without a profound revision of political infrastructure, I doubt any meaningful change can occur.

Proposition four: culture is a resource and, as such, a form of power. Hunter talks about “symbolic capital” which represents knowledge, skills, and credentials. The power of symbolic capital like an advanced degree or title is credibility and influence. One of the reasons naturalism gained so much traction in Western culture is the symbolic capital allowed scientists. I agree that this is true but I am unclear as to how this applies to culture ontologically.

Proposition five: cultural production and symbolic capital are stratified in a fairly rigid structure of “center” and “periphery.” This concerns the status or clout of symbolic power in point four. I agree that this is the case. It is also for this reason that culture becomes entrenched and self-reinforcing. If we give the most authority to graduates of ivy-league schools then it should be of no surprise that their values are what are reflected in our politics and laws.

Proposition six: culture is generated within networks. Hunter argues against the “great man” account of history by asserting “that the key actor in history is not individual genius but rather the network and the new institutions that are created out of those networks.”[4] I agree allowing that often an individual, like Jesus of Nazareth, inspires and forms the network. In the end, His influence inspires culture through a network of followers or disciples.

Proposition seven: culture is neither autonomous nor fully coherent. I think this is one of his best points. Culture is not coherent and most people are harboring some degree of cognitive dissonance. This is part of living in a fallen world but it is also where the worldview apologetics along the lines of Francis Schaeffer’s truth divide concept of nature/grace has a lot to offer. For example, I have noticed a lot of professing evangelicals think like naturalists and exclude the supernatural from their analysis of politics and current events.

Faithful Presence rather than a culture war: He offers criticism of the three dominant stances amongst evangelicals toward culture: 1)“Defensive Against” the culture war; 2)“Relevance To” the emergent church; and 3) “Purity From” entailing a withdrawal like the Amish community and offers an alternative: “Faithful Presence Within.” This presence is based on the model of Jesus’ incarnation and the way Jesus as the word was present working out His purposes in a hostile world. Those purposes include: pursuit, identification, and the offer of life through His sacrificial love. God’s faithful presence implies that he pursues us. Thus, in like fashion, Christians should pursue each other and the community at large. He cites Matthew 25:34-40 as an example of how one should act incarnationally. Second, God’s faithful presence is his identification with us and we can extend this in how we treat outsiders. The third quality of His faithful presence is found in the life He offers. Because of God’s faithful presence to us, we should be faithfully present to Him in response. It means that we are to be fully present to believers and fully present to those who are not. Christians should be fully present and committed to their tasks meaning we work “as unto the Lord” (Col 3:24). We work faithfully in our spheres of influence to create conditions conducive to flourishing for all. As Hunter expresses it, when the love of Christ is realized incarnationally through us, in our relationships, within vocations, and within our circle of influence, then we are exercising faithful presence. I think the basic concept is sound and superior to the “culture war” political mentality. Evangelism works better by attraction than promotion. If we live faithfully and genuinely our lives will attract others and promotion is less necessary. This is an important book and I hope Christians leaders will read and sincerely consider Hunter’s advice.

 



[1] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: the Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2010), 5.

[2] Ibid, 95.

[3] Ibid, 34.

[4] Ibid, 38.

Brother Consolmagno’s Hedging vs. Monsignor Balducci’s Certainty

Balducci in SiriusIt has come to our attention that Guy Consolmagno has protested the way he was presented in  Exo-Vaticana writing:

“There are no Vatican secrets about UFOs. Neither I nor anyone I know has any evidence that extraterrestrials exist. We do not believe that ‘Jesus is a hybrid’ or any of the other bizarre claims that this author makes. He is either seriously deluded, or a deliberate con-man.”

While this is not too surprising in light of thew worldview analysis in Exo-Vaticana, it is a deflection. While Consolmagno has certainly implied in print that Jesus came “not only as the Son of Man but also as a Child of other races”[1] he has publicly suggested bizarre acts like baptizing an ET, “no matter how many tentacles it has,”[2] However, the thesis of our book does not rest on one man but a preponderance of the evidence. It was Pope John Paul II’s close friend Monsignor Corrado Balducci that went on Italian television announcing that in light of the UFO phenomenon, the existence of ETs is a certainty. Interestingly the new documentary Sirius features Balducci saying they are superior to us as well. The Catholic Church has never disassociated itself from the below statement.Luckily this was recorded so the blanket denials and obfuscation tactics will not stand up to scrutiny.

So which story is it Vatican: “there is no evidence” or “it’s a certainty”?

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[1] Guy Consolmagno, Intelligent Life in the Universe: Catholic Belief and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life (London: Catholic Truth Society, 2005), 37.

[2] “Pope’s astronomer says he would baptise an alien if it asked him,” http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/17/pope-astronomer-baptise-aliens

Review of Steven Greer’s Sirius Documentary


By Cris Putnam
SiriusPoster_EBE_ak_webThe new Steven Greer disclosure project film Sirius is structured with an overarching conspiracy theory implicating the military industrial complex (MIC) in surreptitiously controlling the government, banking system and, drum roll please, maintaining a death grip on the truth about UFOs, ET and clean free energy technology. I think they are largely correct concerning the financial elite but the oil industry’s repression of clean energy need not infer anything about extraterrestrials but rather human greed and sinfulness. The movie paints Greer as a heroic martyr fighting the powers that be. Greer poignantly laments the, “misanthropic sociopaths are running the planet into the ground.”[1] Of course, the solution is access to the ET technology the misanthropes are hiding. While there is certainly some truth to the general conspiracy theory, it doesn’t necessarily support the ET beliefs the film promotes. In reality, the pantheistic monism Greer promotes is exactly what the world system wants. This is readily seen in the discredited gurus the film features.

David Wilcock a guru of “soul growth, ascension and the evolution of consciousness” who was one of the most well-known promoters of the 2012 ascension theory is prominently featured. Wilcock’s writings indicate that he began by having strange dreams and synchronicities when he was two years old which progressed to out of body experiences and ESP by the age of seven. He consumed volumes of Edgar Cayce, Eastern mysticism and new age literature. He not only teaches reincarnation theology, his spiritual ascension ideas have resulted in repeated failed date setting. First it was “Ascension 2000” which morphed to “Ascension 2012” and we’re still waiting for the new one. Interestingly he predicted alien disclosure by President Obama in 2009:

David also predicts that President Obama will attempt to reveal the existence of aliens and alien technologies this year. He says it’ll be a two-hour prime time special, in which a human-like off world entity will be introduced.[1A]

David’s prophetic track record is dismal and his scholarship isn’t much better. He teaches that the Japanese culture was taught to them by space aliens and then his associate Michael Cremo cites the Hindu texts as ancient astronaut literature dating back thousands of years. Much of this has been decisively refuted here. Then they trot out the UFOs in medieval art nonsense which has been authoritatively demonstrated to be well known symbols for the sun and moon.[2] Art historians chuckle at this but much of the public is still credulous.

The alien savior mythos about ET redeemers form above preventing a nuclear holocaust is advanced in several scenes. Much of the interview testimony is old recycled material seen in other UFO documentaries like the seminal Out of the Blue which is a much better film than Sirius by a long shot. They used an old clip by Gordon Creighton, the editor of Flying Saucer Review, but neglect to mention Creighton’s studied opinion, “I do believe that the great bulk of these phenomena are what is called satanic.”[2A]

Early on, the movie sets up the required dramatic tension concerning the testing of so-called tiny alien body found in the Chilean desert. This Barbie doll sized ET was heavily featured in the film’s promotional material and certainly drew a lot of folks to part with their cash in order to learn about the promised DNA testing results.

The most dangerous and potentially harmful aspect about the film is the promotion of CE-5 meaning human initiated alien contact. Greer extended the classification system of J Allen Hynek. This is explained in Exo-Vaticana:

1) Close Encounters of the First Kind (CEI) involve “visual” sightings of an Unidentified Flying Object.

2) Close Encounters of the Second Kind (CEII) include visual plus physical traces such as burned spots on the ground, radiation, strange markings, or wreckage debris appropriate for investigation.

3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CEIII) involve sightings of the UFO “occupants” near the UFO.

4) Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind (CEIV) include a human abducted by a UFO or its occupants (this was not included in Hynek’s original scale).

5) Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind (CEV), developed by Steven M. Greer’s Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) group, are described as “joint, bilateral contact events produced through the conscious, voluntary, and proactive human-initiated or cooperative communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.”

6) Close Encounters of the Sixth Kind (CEVI) are described as “UFO incidents that cause direct injury or death.”[3]

CE-5 involves eastern style meditation which entails clearing one’s mind (suspending rational discernment), letting go of one’s spiritual defenses, and allowing the foreign discarnate consciousness free reign. Of course, this amounts to an invitation for demon possession. Unfortunately, Greer and his followers probably have the best of intentions but are being deceived. The devil is a master of disguise: “And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” (2 Co 11:14–15) The movie offers CE-5 as the solution to the world’s problems, a disturbing idea developed and explained in Exo-Vaticana.

More interesting to readers of Exo-Vaticana, the film features our old friend Roman Catholic demonologist, Monsignor Corrado Balducci in a few brief clips. Whereas the majority of evangelical scholars conclude that the contactee phenomenon is connected to the occult, Balducci asserted that so-called extraterrestrial encounters “are not demonic, they are not due to psychological impairment, and they are not a case of entity attachment.”[4] Balducci has never been refuted by the Vatican and he teaches that superior ETs are coming to evangelize us:

Balducci in Sirius

At 13:45 Balducci is shown saying “There will be others who are far superior besides us.” Balducci also asserted, “We don’t even have to waste a thought on the devil and his demons, who still kept their angelic nature, being fallen angels and therefore also purely spiritual beings, since they are limited in their activity by God and therefore not able to bring all their hatred to us.”[6] Given that Balducci was a theologian of the Vatican Curia, a long-time exorcist for the archdiocese of Rome, and a prelate of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith this is important. If one were seeking a Catholic opinion on demonology, it would be hard to solicit a demonologist with more clout. He suggests that originating from the spirit realm precludes any material reality, but Scripture is replete with angels who are mistaken for men (Genesis 19:1; Acts 1:10), and the author of Hebrews warns, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2), which hardly seems possible if they were simply immaterial spirits.

After building tension over the mini-me ET, the anticlimax occurs when Dr. Gary Nolan admits, “The DNA tells the story and we have the computational techniques that allows us to determine, in very short order, whether, in fact, this is human,” also stating, “I can say with absolute certainty that it is not a monkey. It is human — closer to human than chimpanzees.” In fact this human corpse is not new, it has been circulated in UFO circles for ten years, and has long been identified as a mummified human fetus by medical experts as documented here. The film’s promotional efforts featuring this human fetus were not only disingenuous they were macabre.

One marvels at why it has never occurred to Greer that if he is correct and CE-5 works, then why haven’t the benevolent ETs simply given him the clean energy technology? Seriously, he has been out in the desert channeling them for years. Why does the evil MIC have exclusive access to the clean energy. Why can’t Greer and the CSETI faithful just ask the ETs for it? The roaring silence to this question is suggestive. In the end, the movie confirms the eschatological thesis presented in Exo-Vaticana in stunningly precise language by encouraging the viewer to participate by “joining consciousness to unite with the beings that are prepared to communicate with us. In order to succeed in this endeavor called life we must come together as one.”[7] This is one situation where I take no joy in being correct, the push toward the Omega Point is on.

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[1A] Sirius 8:13

[2A] Ruth Gledhill, “Defense Chief Warns of ‘Satanic UFOs’” The Times of London, as cited in AUFORA News Update

March 1, 1997, last accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.mufon.com/MUFONNews/arch011.html

[3] Exo-Vaticana, 445.

[4] Richard Boylan, “Vatican Official Declares Extraterrestrial Contact Is Real” UFO Digest, last accessed January 18, 2013, http://www.ufodigest.com/balducci.html.

[5] Richard Boylan, “Vatican Official Declares Extraterrestrial Contact Is Real” UFO Digest, last accessed January 18, 2013, http://www.ufodigest.com/balducci.html.

[6] Corrado Balducci, “Ufology and Theological Clarifications,”Pescara, (June 8th, 2001), viewable here: http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/mar3/balducci.htm.

[7] Sirius 1:49:30