Francis is not the only one speculating about these matters. The pope’s fellow Jesuit, the American Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Vatican Observatory’s curator of meteorites, has noted that he fields this question quite often, along with queries about the Star of Bethlehem. Brother Guy’s answer to the question “Would you baptize (insert here name of favorite Martian, Vulcan, Klingon, E.T., etc.)?” is “If they ask.”

Meanwhile, the pope’s visit to the lands of Jesus has reminded all of us that, if communication with such visitors will prove vexing, we can prepare ourselves for such a great turn in the history of humanity by devoting ourselves to better communication among peoples here on earth.

At an interfaith meeting last month in Springfield, participants were given a challenge: share one positive thing and one negative thing about your own religious tradition. There was some resistance to voicing something negative. We feel an urge, particularly when we are with people of other religions, to want to explain the truth, beauty and value of our way of life. This is entirely natural and to be expected.

But can’t we, as Christians in general and Catholic Christians in particular, own up to the ways in which we make our religion a vehicle for our pride? Christian history has been marked by strange developments by which the faith of the witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection has been linked with established civil power and with the presumption that those who do not embrace this faith are suspect. Isn’t our pride one of the causes of strife among peoples?

In the end, most people present were able to share a negative as well as a positive aspect of their various religious traditions. Speaking for myself, I found it freeing to be able to share the fact that pride has often distorted my Christianity. I did so alongside my awareness that the-Word-become-flesh calls us to see the dignity of every human being. The focus on the person is indeed one of the great strengths of the Christian faith.

Last Sunday’s second reading, from the first Letter of St. Peter, instructs Christians to “always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence.” We are not called to overwhelm people with our arguments, sound as they may be. We are to witness that the Son of God has changed us and given us peace. And who can argue with peace?

Space: the final frontier? There remain spaces between our ears and stony places in our hearts. We do not know whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. We do know that our big small world affords us plenty of challenges as we encounter “the other” right here and right now.