Msgr. Balducci: The Final Word

Eduardo Russo, a UFO investigator from Turin, has spoken at length to Monsignor Corrado Balducci, who contributed an interview to my new book Confirmation. Mr. Russo has gotten from him precisely the same story that I did when I spoke to him to determine that the translation of the interview was correct. This is Mr. Russo’s report:

The story has been widely circulating in the last two weeks, telling of “Vatican theologist” Corrado Balducci having been on Italian national TV as many as five times in the last few months in order to openly claim and admit that ET’s exist, have souls and – most extraordinary of all – the Vatican knows it, studies them and collect data via a secret commission.

I have been asked to comment and have done so publicly, telling nothing of that sort ever happened, but:

– Corrado Balducci is a known theologist but not a Vatican theologist, nor a spokesman for the Vatican;

– though a frequent guest at TV programs on a variety of subjects, UFOs and ET’s included, his own personal opinions about the matter have been spread over several years, and there’s nothing new now.

Some of the people originally diffusing the story, notably Richard Boylan, chose to attack me personally for having said so, and challenged my claims.

The most simple and logical thing to do was to ask directly Corrado Balducci.

This I did yesterday, Thursday 15 April, in a very long (40 minutes) phone call.

He was at first surprised, then amused, at learning of the story as it is circulating on the Internet.

He asked me to collect and send him copy of it all, for his own files, and offered me his answers as of the many questions I asked him.

Here is a synopsis, in order to close and settle the matter once and for all.

1) He is no Vatican theologist

Corrado Balducci explained me in detail that he is just one of the thousands theologists in Italy (most younger Catholic priests have got a degree in theology) and no special one. He is not working at the Vatican and is retired now. (WS Note: He was in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith when he gave the interview that is in my book.)

Moreover, no such thing as a “Vatican theologist” does exist: the nearest thing would be the “theologist for the Holy Father” (an elderly archbishop theologist acting as a consultant to the Pope).

2) He is not a member of any Vatican commission on ET contacts, which does not exist. (WS Note: I also asked him about this and got the same answer.)

He laughed a lot about the notion itself of a secret Vatican commission on ET contacts, which he told me he felt sure was non-existent, even if he is not working at the Vatican (but he’s got many many friends an colleagues therein and he told me he would have known).

He authorized me to formally deny, in his own name, that either he has ever been member of such commission or that he ever heard of it.

As of the rumour that Vatican Embassies would collect ET contacts data and pass it on to the Vatican, he told me they have better and more important things to do, and nothing of that sort is even remotely believable.

3) He is not studying UFOs or ET contacts

He insisted he is specialized just in demonology, and his present concerns are about New Age beliefs and new religions. UFOs and ET’s are not his own subject, he never wrote or presented the Vatican any document on that subject (“not even two lines”). (WS Note: His thoughts on the subject, however, are brilliant and quite amazingly insightful.)

His own present opinion as of UFOs is that we must trust testimonies, hence we cannot deny something is being seen.

His own present opinion as of ET intelligent beings is that, IF THEY EXIST and IF WE EVER MAKE CONTACT with them, they MIGHT well be beings superior to us as of spirituality. IF THAT IS TRUE, a contact might even be desirable for us.

4) He has not been speaking about UFO/ET on TV so frequently as claimed

He does not recall having been a TV guest on the UFO/ET subject as many as five times in a few months, though he has probably be in a few years.

5) He never spoke in the name of the Vatican

All that he has been saying about UFOs or ET beings, on TV or elsewhere, has always been his own personal opinion or even some wild hypotheses based upon logic and his own feelings. He does not feel either qualified or authorized to speak on behalf of the Vatican, which would do so in much more formal ways. Nor did he express official or unofficial opinions of the Vatican hierarchy.

6) He never released any interview to “Nonsiamosoli”

He was flabbergasted at learning a whole series of out-of-context quotations of his have been sold as an “interview” in Giorgio Bongiovanni’s “Nonsiamosoli” bulletin and website, since he has always had a very bad opinion about Bongiovanni and his group and even confronted him on TV (ironically: in one of those emissions quoted by the ongoing story!) and told publically he did not believe Bongiovanni’s stygmates came from God.

But he remembers having released a TV interview to Michael Hesemann, last year, and telling the same opinions of his, reported above. He wondered if that might be the original source, though largely deformated in the subsequently circulated story. (WS Note: This is the interview that appears in Confirmation)

What remains is the fact that the story of the official Vatican statements on the ET’s, as circulated on the Internet, was definitely a hoax.

Another fact is that the real truth was not found by those rumour-mongers eager to promote just every wild story without bothering to check their sources, but by serious-minded ufologists. (WS: How true!)

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.