What is it with Catholics and Ex-Catholics and Their Interest in the Paranormal and UFOs?

From Hellier: The Heart of It

When I was watching season 1 of 'Hellier' there was a shot of a bookcase behind Conner (who claimed to be a Catholic or ex-Catholic somewhere in the series) and a few of the book titles caught my eye.

The bookcase behind Conner in 'Hellier'

I already knew the author of 'Communion' (Whitley Strieber) claimed to be a Catholic and I knew that the book 'The Rite' was supposedly based on a real story about a Catholic priest which was made into a movie starring Anthony Hopkins as the priest's mentor -

The Rite/Right Stuff?

Hellier: Ink and Black

While I'm not a Roman Catholic the institution does intrigue me and as I read the late Catholic priest Malachi Martin's 90s novel

(I'm still only 400 pages in right now) I'm stunned that his "factional" allegations of rampant pedophilia, especially in the American Church have proven very prophetic looking back from 2022.

Who Was Malachi Martin?

Rev. Thomas the priest/exorcist who the movie 'The Rite' is based on was mentioned in this news story about an incident that took place in his parish.

And when I saw a book on that shelf titled 'Deliver Us From Evil' it reminded me of this film with the same title I watched back around 2006, which wasn't long after Pope John Paul II passed away.

Deliver Us from Evil

Martin's book revolves around the "Slavic Pope" fighting the good fight against corrupt clergy and "Satanic" individuals from outside and inside The Church.

Martin died in 1999 roughly 6 years before Pope John Paul II did.  

I must say I find it personally ironic that The Requiem Mass for Pope John Paul II was held on the 8th April 2005, which just happened to be the anniversary of my Roman Catholic Nan's passing (who passed in the early '80s), as well as my father's birthday.

My Nan would have had a fit if she had have lived long enough to hear and read about all this scandal in her Church.

Of course, there has been similar scandals reported in other religions such as the Anglican Church, which my parents had me baptized into at birth (not that we ever went to church as a family except for services like these), before I converted to the Liberal Catholic Church as a young man, although I was never one for religion anyway.

A lot of my heroes when growing up were/are Roman Catholics like Erich von Däniken in the You Tube below whose fantastic non-Catholic stories fascinated me as a child/teenager and who I got to meet in my hometown of Brisbane one night when I was a man -

My Night at the Ancient Astronauts Australian Tour 2015

So, it amazes me that Roman Catholics such as Diana Pasulka and Jacques Vallée are big names in the UFO/paranormal fields even today.

Maybe Catholics just love a good scary story, no matter how true it is?-)

Dr. Jacques Vallée’s Diaries (Skeptiko #359)