Vatican 'helped cover up UFOs' as it's urged to release documents in wake of Pope's death

The has been accused of "working with the US government" to investigate and cover up - and is being urged to release what they know after

investigator and filmmaker Mark Christopher Lee has called on the Holy See to release "hundreds" of classified documents about potential sightings from their mysterious underground archives. It comes less than two years after a Pentagon whistleblower made shocking unsubstantiated allegations that the Vatican had been "involved" in covering up a UFO crash in Italy in the 1930s.

Lee, who has studied the links between religion and alien phenomena, claims there could be sightings dating back centuries in the heavily guarded documents. Following , he is now urging his successor to share "the truth."

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He told MailOnline: "If the Church is truly committed to spiritual truth and human enlightenment, then it must no longer suppress information that could fundamentally reshape our understanding of our place in the cosmos."

Lee also believes the outlandish encounters described in religious texts could be misinterpreted alien sightings.

"What people are seeing in the sky, they could be genuine extraterrestrial UFOs, but there's also most likely going to be secret military years and years ahead of what we think they've got,' Lee said.

"I think people in the UFO community need to be aware of that. It's not just little green men visiting, it's more complicated. I think the public deserves to know. We don't need to be protected from this information."

It comes two years after David Charles Grusch, an Air Force veteran and former member of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, claimed the US government has recovered a number of extraterrestrial vehicles and lied about it for decades.

In 2023, he testified in front of the House Oversight subcommittee and when asked whether he thought the government was in possession of UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena), he answered: “Absolutely, based on interviewing over 40 witnesses over four years … I know the exact locations.”

Grusch also testified that a massive cover-up was ongoing, and any military personnel attempting to talk about aliens or extraterrestrial phenomena was met with 'brutal retaliation.' “I do have knowledge of active planned reprisal activity against myself and other colleagues," he told the subcommittee.

At one point during the first-of-its-kind hearing, Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn) asked Grusch: 'Personally, have you heard anyone [has] been murdered?' Grausch said: 'I have to be careful answering that question. I directed people with that knowledge to the appropriate authorities.'

Lawmakers challenged the expert, including one that touched on the idea that all he saw was 'military grade' technology or perhaps a plane sent by a foreign state.

In a statement, Defence Department spokeswoman Sue Gough said investigators have not discovered “any verifiable information to substantiate claims that any programs regarding the possession or reverse-engineering of extraterrestrial materials have existed in the past or exist currently.”