Pope Leo XIV’s newly appointed astronomer says he would baptise an alien, calling extraterrestrials “children of God.”

Father Richard D’Souza, who now leads the Vatican Observatory near Rome, said theology would have to “reimagine itself” if humans ever make contact with intelligent life.

“They are all part of God’s creation,” he said, adding that while baptism requires physical presence, “the question would be how to reach them or how they would reach us.”

The India-born Jesuit, a former physics and theology scholar, joined the Vatican Observatory in 2016 and has an asteroid named in his honour.

He said the search for life beyond Earth could yield answers within the next 30 years as “science is pushing for that.”