The Vatican has awoken to the possibility of a once-alien concept - life in a galaxy far, far away.

The Catholic Church, which 400 years ago locked away Galileo for daring to claim the sun was the center of the universe, this week held a conference to study the possibility of extraterrestrials.

"The questions of life's origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration," said the Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, astronomer and head of the Vatican Observatory.

The priest has previously said there may be aliens out there somewhere and that such a belief is not contradictory to a belief in God.

"How can we rule out that life may have developed elsewhere?" Funes said in an interview last year.

Scientists from Europe, South America and the U.S, attended the five-day conference to explore issues that include "whether sentient life forms exist on other worlds."

The Vatican Observatory, whose headquarters are near a Papal residence near Rome, in 2005 held a similar session with top researchers.

It's a profound shift for the Catholic Church from the condemnation of Galileo, which Pope John Paul II in 1992 said stemmed from an error in "tragic mutual incomprehension."

jmartinez@edit.nydailynews.com

Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!