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(NewsNation) — Pope Leo XIV has appointed a new head astronomer to run the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest scientific observatories in the world.

Rev. Richard D’Souza, 47, will succeed Guy Consolmagno, an American physicist who was known as the “pope’s astronomer” for ten years. Both men are members of the Jesuit Order.

D’Souza was born in India and has been a staff astronomer at the Vatican Observatory since 2016, the Vatican said. He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai and his master’s degree in physics from the University of Heidelberg in Germany. D’Souza earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Munich. He is currently studying the effect of mergers on nearby Milky Way mass galaxies.  

Vatican Observatory head inspired by the Jesuit missionaries

D’Souza told Indian Catholic Matters that he was inspired by the Jesuit missionaries who brought Christianity to India on his journey as a scientist and a priest. “Many of them were great pioneers — writing grammars of the local languages, drawing maps, founding colleges and institutions, as well as documenting the local flora and fauna,” he said. 

Today, the Vatican Observatory carries out a wide range of astronomical research — from studying meteorites, galaxies and the planets to quantum gravity and the Big Bang. Its mission is to “be on the frontier between the world of science and the world of faith, to give testimony that it is possible to believe in God and to be good scientists.

D’Souza will begin his mandate as director of the Vatican Observatory on September 20.