Pope Leo XIV visits the historic telescopes located at the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles southeast of Rome, on July 20, 2025. / Credit: Vatican Media

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.