A leading Catholic scholar claimed that alleged alien abductions stories have parallels with people who say they have encountered demons.
Theologian Dr Paul Thigpen went on to add that aliens are in fact more than likely " demons ".
He also said that the US government know more than they publicly state in relation to UAPs ('Unexplained Aerial Phenomena' - a US military term for UFOs ).
Dr Thigpen told the National Catholic Register: “With UAP we may actually be dealing with extraordinary phenomena of various origins despite similar characteristics.
“Extra-terrestrial hypothesis – the notion that we are encountering non-human intelligences from locations in this universe beyond Earth - best accounts for many UAP.
“The diabolical hypothesis – that they are demons – best accounts for some UAP reports, especially some of the so-called alien abductions’ that demonstrate clear parallels with what the Church knows as demonic encounters.”
These comments come after the US government last year reported on 144 UFO sightings by military pilots since 2004, with only one being explained away as a balloon and the rest "largely inconclusive".
In May of this year, the first public congressional hearing into UAP sightings in the US was held for more than 50 years, which included 11 "near-misses" with US aircrafts
Through "rigorous" analysis most of them could be explained, according to two senior military officials, but some incidents were considered as unexplainable.
Dr Thigpen's recent claims are in line with a 2012 paper by the late Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna and published in US-based Orthodox Christian Information Center, reports the Daily Star.
The archbishop wrote that “ultimately one cannot escape the conclusion” that alien abductors are “demons or phantoms created by demonic power."
He went on to call them "corrupt and degenerate" who "thrive on the human passions – feed on them.
“This explains the almost universal sexual exploitation of their captives by alien abductors.
"In the second place, in the course of their physical examination of abductees, the aliens inflict pain on their victims and frequently scar them.”
“In the first place they look like demons. They appear to be material creatures and yet have a transparent character."
“According to the teachings of the Church demons are spiritual beings - that is they are fallen Angels.
However, Dr Thigpen, who wrote a book called 'Extraterrestrial Intelligence and the Catholic Faith', believed that if aliens do exist then they were made by God and “under the Lordship of Christ ”.
He said: “God loves those creatures - he loves everything he made.”
