Vatican City, Jul 31, 2025 / 12:11 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed astronomer Father Richard Anthony D’Souza, SJ, as the new director of the Vatican Observatory.
D’Souza, who has worked at the Vatican’s astronomical research and educational institution since 2016, will start his new position on Sept. 19, according to the Holy See Press Office statement.
The Indian priest succeeds Brother Guy J. Consolmagno, SJ, whose 10-year mandate ends next month, as head of the observatory. Consolmagno will remain at the scientific institution as a staff astronomer.
Born in Goa in 1978, D’Souza joined the Society of Jesus in 1996 and was ordained a priest in 2011 after completing studies at the Jnana Deepa Institute of Philosophy and Theology in India.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics from St. Xavier’s College, University of Mumbai, India, in 2002 and was awarded a master’s degree in physics by the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 2005.
In 2016, he completed his doctorate in astronomy at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany, before moving to Italy to work with the Vatican Observatory in the same year.
According to the Vatican Observatory website, D’Souza, whose area of specialized research is the formation and evolution of galaxies, is also the superior of the Jesuit community attached to the observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy.
In 1891, Leo XIII issued the motu proprio Ut Mysticam (“As Mystical”) authorizing the construction of a new modernized observatory in Castel Gandolfo, approximately 15 miles southeast of Rome.
The Church’s first observatory was founded in 1579 by Pope Gregory XIII, who entrusted the institution to the Society of Jesus.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
We read: “The Church’s first observatory was founded in 1579 by Pope Gregory XIII, who entrusted the institution to the Society of Jesus.”
Very interesting, about the Jesuits then and now….As an aside, and in an account of Galileo’s (1564-1642) difficulties and one Fr. Grienberger, a Jesuit astronomer of that day, we have this:
“In a conversation which he expected would remain confidential, Father Grienberger (rhymes with [Bishop] Wiesenburger!) said: “If Galileo had only known how to retain the favor of the Jesuits, he would have stood in renown before the world, he would have been spared all his misfortunes, and he could have written what he pleased about everything, even about the motion of the earth” (Giorgio de Santillana, “The Crime of Galileo,” University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 290).
SUMMARY: in only five centuries, from a round and closed universe to closed and round tables!
Hearty congratulations to the Reverend Richard Anthony D’Souza. God bless.