Presentation of the book “Angels in starships” by mons. Corrado Calducci, cav. Augusto Giordano and Eufemio del Buono, at the Libreria Internazionale Remo Croce in Rome March 25th 1983.

“I can’t deny that I started reading this book with some skepticism and with an inquisitor mind looking for something that could bring against certain fundamental truths. The Ufology is undoubtedly a very impressive subject and it therefore some physiological and psychological especially like the illusion, hallucination, suggestibility, can play an important role: but that all comes down to such a thing is unsustainable and dangerous now because of too many and too various testimonies. So it is not all fantasy. We have reached a historical moment when we must say there is some truth!”.

Years ago, I wrote something in relation to another field of science or almost, the spiritualism. And I wrote in 1959: “An exaggerated disbelief, as well as being contrary to the most elementary sense of caution, it can have disastrous consequences in the field of religion.” And here I quoted a few sentences of the book “Spiritualism and the Church”: “From a logical point of view, the Christians who accept the miracles and other incidents recounted by the Gospel, are in an exceptional situation. They cannot consistently reject obstinately the repeated testimonies of modern reliable witnesses who report that their eyes have seen, and what their ears have heard in circumstances that apparently exclude the possibility of deception.

Our whole system of apologetics is based on the belief in the truth of what the Gospels say. Therefore, the systematic demolition and the discrediting of human testimonies remembering simple facts, seem to me in principle opposed to any belief in the historical seriousness of the Gospel and indirectly to any belief in the Christian revelation. No more doubts. Now the door is open to ufologists, the phenomena exist, they will exist instead of ten percent, but the phenomena exist. But how do we explain these phenomena? The two assignments are possible or potential inhabitants of other worlds or Angels and the Souls of the Dead. With the Angels we also include Mary, and even, if you want, Jesus.

With regard to the so-called Martians, about the possibility of the habitability of other planets, we do not know anything for sure and this also explains why Eufemio Del Buono says in its fervor the reasons for the waiting attitude of the Church in alternative to science.

But the Church can say much. The thing is possible. I speak of course from the religious point of view and not from the scientific point of view. The possibilities are endless in God. Indeed tomorrow is the feast of the Annunciation and there is a phrase that we should never forget, that was said by the angel to the Virgin: “Before God, nothing is impossible!”.

Imagine if God can not give the beat to even millions of planets and stars and who knows what else! ... There was a Salesian, who died at the end of the last century, Don Feltrami, who is to be beatified. He, in his prayers, never failed to mention the possible inhabitants of other planets and wrote a booklet to show the possibility of habitability of other planets. Not only in theology it is possible, but according to many theologians, it is also likely, which does not mean true, and this likelihood is an old axiom in nature where there is a whole scale between the Angels and us as is not below us, the plant or animal or human kingdom (body and soul). Angels only soul, only spirit, a little bit too much. Arguably there may be beings who are more spirit than matter. A fact is, as St. Paul says, that Christ is the center and head of the creation of the universe. There are therefore no worlds that do not have a reference to Christ. From the biblical texts we can say that Christ, as the Incarnate Word, exerts its influence on all possible inhabited planets. But the book is not about Martians, but of the Angels and the Souls of the Dead. Council of Rhodes, the fourth century: “God created the visible and the invisible”. The Church speak out on the revealed matter. Then the theologians may indulge in speculations and so on, but what the theologians say is different from what the Church would say. We must distinguish. What does the Church say is what is the revealed truth. Maybe proposed to us even as a dogma that adds nothing to the revealedtruth, but that gives as a charism, such as putting a stamp on a letterhead. The Creed of Epiphanius, the Council of Constantinople, Constantinople Creed we recite at Mass in Italian: “Creator of all things visible and invisible

”. The Feast of the Guardian Angels. And now emphasizes a particular aspect of the Angels that Giorgio explained very well. I would like to spend some time to speak more about the souls of the dead, it is recognized that exists, about the souls of the living, to get an idea if once dead can or can not do what Giorgio said and saw.

Today, philosophy trend to go further highlighting and replacing the concept of mind-body dualism, with the concept of transcendence of the soul over the body. This is because the soul is more intimate to the body than the body itself. The soul is whole in the whole body and whole in each part of the body. Something that is not valid for the body in the body. The soul, while forming with the body a unique reality, substance, subsistent, do not ever mix with the body. This is the meaning of the liberation of the dead, tendency where psychologists are going to. In the tale of the beautiful scene of death, that is the liberation of the soul, we understand that in this life there is a need of the soul to spiritualize the body. So that after death there these bodies increasingly spiritualized, is not opposed with theological positions.

This finds its full realization in the paradigm of the Risen Christ: make the body very obedient to soul is the way of holiness. This transcendence from the body is called constitutional transcendence, the soul also has the respect in the world and is called structural transcendence.

Therefore recognize all that things outside of us, is not astral, but spiritualize the world. Knowledge spiritualize the world, and the world aspires to become a man in the man, person in the person, the whole world, both animated inanimate, was created by God for this, to be also, as a body, put to our realization, for our spiritual, intellectual and moral growth. There is as a mystical natural body, I do not know if it is ever said a sentence like that, but I would support it. We know the mystical body which is the body that unites the living Christians, but there is also the mystical natural body that unites everybody, not only the living ones and in this case even the baptized, but also the non-living, the nature in fact. The good and the bad of ones do not affect only the others, as in the case of the mystical body theologically speaking, but the whole world, the nature.

I read you a quote from S. Agostino: “If you know what is the matter, space, time, you are not, however, neither matter nor space nor time, because you are above all that”.

We know very little about what the soul can do, but it can do very much, and there are some situations in which the soul comes out as the flash of enormous power that it has, because God knows everything, including the future free, but this does not means that He constraints freedom. He knows that because he has a privileged position and for him everything is present and therefore knows what will happen, but it depends on us that we will do one or the other thing that he already knew. It is a privileged situation that may nevertheless have in part, or as a gift of God, and to what extent I do not feel to move, or to its own nature.

The soul, the Angels and the Souls of the Dead, we know very little of their life, of the afterlife, it is certain that these beings have a capacity and enormous possibilities, which are animated by a great love towards God, among each other and to the living people of Earth.

For the Dead then, it has to be added the family ties, friendship, gratitude, then among the Dead, a particular role have the Saints. I have highlighted some points of the book that occur frequently. They are Angels and the Souls of the Dead. Is it right, Giorgio? (Giorgio replied:) “They are Angels and some people who have lived on Earth, but at the angelic state, that is, among these visitors from the space there were not Dead in the sense of people who lived on Earth and then people living on planets of the Cosmos”. The second point that appears repeatedly is that these people show a great desire to help us, which is primarily aimed at the fact to prevent the destruction of the world.

With regard to the destruction of the world, in the book tells about what many prophecies have spoken. Another point of interest is their help to the good people, in this disaster and this too I found it in some prophecies. After this cataclysm an era of happiness on earth will follow. This has been told to Giorgio, he was told of this millenarianism. This millenarianism is here understood in the book as the New Eden and I can say that there is an answer of the Holy Office that says that this is a doctrine that can not be taught with ease because there are no evidences, so you see, at least the Church was very broadminded.

But we have not to deceive ourselves that a war will not burn, because if no longer there will not be a war, we would have changed our nature. As man is man, will give reason to the war in the family, in the party, in the association, in the school ... he adapts to the times.

The recent wars are global and will be increasingly global because the world is getting smaller, thanks to the progresses in transportation and telecommunications.

We must not deceive ourselves that these called as small wars such as Palestine, Afghanistan, Vietnam, prevent other major wars. As we must not deceive ourselves with the fact of the atomic bombs.

Who is so simplistic to think that if there is a war to fight with the weapons of the previous war? I was very pleased to read the book of Giorgio, because it gave me reason to see how it is no longer the man who appealed the punishment to the goodness which is infinite, is merciful, but even that has its limits, as it is written in the book. But it is not only man, but it is the world that will make war to the humans. In the light of these considerations, either for one or for the other one can not exclude the possibility of what is stated in the book. There is nothing in the book, that contrast the revealed truth and this is a good argument in favor of the authenticity of the event. If someone like Giorgio, for reasons that the Providence knows and resolve for the good of mankind, has been privileged to penetrate the secrets of the afterlife and savor the wonders in some way, we are grateful to God first and then to He who, by a very simple description, touching and heartfelt, he has shared.

The book not only is a wonderful journey, in a heavenly world, is a poem of God’s love for us and an urgent, repeated invitation to Love, to God, to neighbor and to nature, is a serious warning to abandon hate and evil, and a special comfort with regard to the terrible cataclysm and a source of great joy for what awaits us after the test.