MULTIPLE WORLDS?
MULTIPLE MESSIAHS?
What happens to Catholic teaching if intelligent life is discovered elsewhere in the universe? With a triune God, Jesus would have to make an appearance on each one of the worlds that have it, even if there are billions of them. What is the difference between an appearance and a reincarnation? Is Jesus allowed to reincarnate? Reincarnation is supposed to be anathema to Christianity. And there would have to be just as many “Blessed Virgins.” No one would expect that the Virgin Mary would reincarnate. Therefore, there would be a multitude of “Queens of Heaven” or “Mothers of God.” If the Doctrine of the Trinity with a unique Jesus were thrown out, there wouldn’t be much left to build the Church upon.
And, of course, there would have to be a Pope on each of these worlds. The supremacy of each pope could only extend throughout his own domain. That means that the Pope of Rome could not be Pope on some planet in the Andromeda Galaxy which is populated with intelligent beings. They would need their own pope. The doctrines on all worlds would necessarily have to be the same.
So, if there is intelligent life on other planets, we are left with a unique Jesus, a multitude of Blessed Virgins or Mothers of God or Queens of Heaven, and a multitude of popes, all preaching the same doctrines. The one, true Jesus would have to reincarnate on each of these worlds and be crucified all over again on each one of them, unless, on some of them, “Adam and Eve” were actually able to preserve themselves from sin.