Corrado Balducci (May 11, 1923, in Italy – September 20, 2008 in Italy) was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

of the Vatican Curia, a close friend of the

pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, a long-time exorcist for the

Archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, and a

Prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Christian clergy who is an ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which means 'carry before', 'be set above or over' or 'pref ...

of the

Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: * Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...

and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He has written several books about the subliminal messages in rock and metal music, diabolic possessions, and extraterrestrials.

Career

Balducci graduated in 1954 from Pontificia Accademia Ecclesiastica, the Vatican training institute for priests who will be future papal ambassadors, or nuncios. Balducci worked as an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Rome. He was also a member of the Congregation for Evangelization and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

Views

Balducci upheld the views of the Catholic Church, and advocated treating ostensible cases of

demonic possession Spirit possession is an unusual or altered state of consciousness and associated behaviors purportedly caused by the control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or gods. The concept of spirit possession exists in many cultures and reli ...

with exorcism. He also condemned

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, which he believed "includes satanic subliminal messages, pushing evil and suicide". Balducci reportedly "defended the existence of

extraterrestrial Extraterrestrial refers to any object or being beyond ( extra-) the planet Earth ( terrestrial). It is derived from the Latin words ''extra'' ("outside", "outwards") and ''terrestris'' ("earthly", "of or relating to the Earth"). It may be abbrevia ...

life, and invited the Catholic Church to reconsider its position on this issue". Balducci told a 1998 magazine interviewer that he believed "UFO entities were not demonic" and that they should be investigated by science "and not the world of angels or the Virgin Mary or the demons...not as a divine or demonic incident, but a physical reality". Balducci's remarks were later misrepresented and distributed on the Internet by

UFOlogists This is a list of notable people who are ufologists (UFO researchers). Argentina * Juan Posadas, (1912–1981), Trotskyist theorist who blended together Trotskyism and Ufology. Posadas' version of Trotskyism is regarded as its own strai ...

as "a Vatican announcement of UFO reality".

Media

Books

* Diabo: ...Vivo e Atuante no Mundo, O (paperback, 2004) * Il diavolo (Grandisaggi) (1994) * Adoratori del diavolo e rock satanico (1991) * The Devil "Alive and Active in Our World" (paperback, 1990)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balducci, Corrado 1923 births 2008 deaths 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic theologians Clergy from Milan