Vatican searches for aliens

VATICAN CITY - Dozens of scientists from around the world have attended a five-day Vatican conference on the possibility of alien life in the universe and its theological implications.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, director of the Vatican Observatory, wrapped up the conference Tuesday. He said, "There is a rich middle ground for dialogue between the practitioners of astrobiology and those who seek to understand the meaning of our existence in a biological universe."

Funes said in a 2008 interview with the Vatican newspaper that the discovery of intelligent extra-terrestrials wouldn't contradict Christian faith because they would still be God's creatures.

But Christian scholars have wondered whether alien species might have resisted temptation and remained sinless -- or if they sinned, how God might have offered them salvation.