VATICAN CITY (CNS) - A widely discussed new documentary about UFOs, "Age of Disclosure," includes an allegation from a former CIA official that the Vatican holds evidence of the existence of non-human intelligence - and he does not mean angels.
Such claims have prompted Catholic filmmaker Sam Sorich to make his own documentary, which he says will investigate the allegation and articulate a Catholic response to the controversy now drawing the attention of U.S. lawmakers.
"It's a wild claim," Sorich said.
"A film like 'Age of Disclosure' is going to have a massive cultural impact, and the Catholic response should happen at every level," Sorich said.
"I'm going to lay out the claims, the facts," he said, explaining that the allegation would serve as his hook for exploring -- along with credentialed theologians and church experts -- what it would mean for believers if it turned out to be true.
As detailed by former intelligence official David Grusch in 2023 congressional testimony, the allegation holds that Pope Pius XII knew of a UFO that crashed near Milan in 1933. Grusch said the pope later backchanneled information about the craft to the U.S. government, which took possession of it after World War II, according to those who believe the story.
Catholic News Service followed Sorich's team Oct. 31 as they filmed a scene in which Jesse Michels, a popular podcaster-researcher, was given a guided tour of a fascist-era military bunker in San Oreste, Italy, where the technology behind the alleged craft was said to have been studied.
"There was a well-known connection between this place and the Vatican," Gregory Paolucci, founder of the Bunker Soratte museum and mayor of San Oreste, told the filmmakers in a segment filmed in front of a large, early-1940s photograph of Pope Pius XII that is part of the bunker's display.
Paolucci said he was also given a World War II–era Swiss Guard jacket by a member of the Italian intelligence services when he began his work to establish the museum.
"We know the connection is real" between the bunker and the Vatican, Paolucci said, but he has never been able to confirm whether any of those connections relate to the alleged UFO and Pope Pius supposedly passing information about it to the U.S. government.
Sorich approached the Vatican Observatory but was denied interviews. In a Nov. 25 email to Catholic News Service, former Vatican Observatory director Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno said the observatory's policy during his tenure -- and still, as far as he knows -- was to avoid the topic of UFOs in the media.
"The subject of UFOs -- or whatever they are calling them now -- is a very touchy one. Most everything done about them is tainted badly by the charlatans who have poisoned the topic, and having a few reliable voices isn't enough to stem the tide," Brother Consolmagno said.
"Sadly, having been burned in the past, we've made the decision at the Vatican Observatory to simply avoid talking about the topic at all," he said. "We simply can't afford to be associated with it."
Sorich also contacted several professors at pontifical universities in Rome for interviews but was told the UFO topic was not serious. One told him that "to talk with an astrophysicist about UFOs is like talking to a zoologist about unicorns and dragons," he said.
Another lead Sorich pursued was a series of meetings -- previously reported in the Italian press with headlines such as "Holy See Opens to UFOs" and "The Extraterrestrial Lands in the Vatican" -- in which priests and theologians reportedly discussed UFOs at the Church of St. Anne inside the Vatican walls.
Sorich learned that the UFO-themed meetings were simply part of a broader series of "Cultural Wednesdays" at the parish and had been organized by the late Pier Vincenzo Giudici, former deputy director of Vatican Radio, and his wife, Nadia, both citizens of Vatican City State.
Nadia Giudici told CNS that the range of subjects covered over the program's 33 years -- from Egyptology and Christian archaeology to Russian poetry and Irish music -- far outweighed the occasional UFO talk. She plans to schedule another UFO-themed talk next year.
For Sorich, the Italy shoot yielded intriguing hints but no evidence that could verify the alleged Vatican backchannel. He is weighing a follow-up trip to continue investigating.
Sorich's production company, Glass Darkly Films, was born out of his long experience in Catholic media, having worked in video production for both Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Toronto and for Spirit Juice Studios in Chicago. He has worked for years to create projects that bring Catholic creatives together, such as 8BEATS, a nationwide collaborative film anthology project on the Beatitudes.
His most recent film, on the life and thought of René Girard, the French Catholic philosopher, was purchased by Peter Thiel and has registered more than 130,000 views on YouTube, Sorich said.
One of the investors in Sorich's film on UFOs and Catholicism, expected to be released in late 2026, is ChurchPOP founder and cryptocurrency executive Brantly Millegan.
"It's imperative for the church to draw from her tradition to respond; this is why we have a living Magisterium," Millegan told CNS.
"Catholics should know that the church's tradition has more to say on the subject than they may suspect," Millegan said. "Sam is doing the church a great service by investigating this."
Sorich told CNS that, in addition to theologians and experts, he has interviewed Catholics who have reported UFO sightings or other paranormal events that do not fit neatly into classic angel-or-demon categories. Among them, he said, are an Italian priest, seminary professors and well-known figures in Catholic media.
In one segment filmed for the documentary in early November, former military chaplain Father Matthew Gray said he was told by highly credentialed people he trusted in the military that the U.S. government has recovered crashed UFOs.
Sorich's film marks the first time many of them have spoken publicly about their experiences.
"There's a stigma around the discussion of UFOs," Sorich said of people's reluctance to appear on camera. "(People think) experiencers must be crazy and it's not worthy of scientific investigation because it's obviously false."
Sorich, who teaches filmmaking at John Paul the Great Catholic University in San Diego, said he sees his work on UFOs as part of the listening and dialogue with contemporary culture that the church is calling for.
"UFO people are on the margins," Sorich said. "They've been told that they're crazy."
"That has nothing to do with how you're supposed to treat them, and love them and give them respect," he said.
Caption: Sam Sorich, a Catholic filmmaker producing a documentary on Catholicism and UFOs, is seen filming a behind-the-scenes segment of an episode of Jesse Michels’ podcast on location in San Oreste, Italy, DATE, 2025. Michels and his production team were given a private tour of the Monte Soratte military bunker, where some people claim UFO technology was studied in the early 20th century. (CNS photo/Robert Duncan)
