Former Pentagon official David Grusch claimed in 2023 that Pope Pius tipped off the US about an alien spacecraft that had crashed in Italy in the 1930s. He also alleged that the Vatican 'certainly' knew about the existence of non-human intelligences on Earth. The possibility that the Vatican's archives might contain information about UFOs has excited many. However, the Vatican has denied Grusch's claims and stated that they do not know where he got this information. The archives are known to contain reports about paranormal events and have been the subject of fascination for scholars for centuries.