Pope appoints Argentine Jesuit to head Vatican Observatory

Published: 2006-08-21

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Argentine Jesuit Father Jose Funes, 43, to be the new director of the Vatican Observatory. The astronomer, an expert on disk galaxies, has served as a staff astronomer at the Vatican Observatory since 2000. Father Funes succeeds U.S. Jesuit Father George V. Coyne, 73, who had served as director since 1978. The observatory staff divides its time between facilities at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, and the University of Arizona in Tucson. The observatory traces its origins back to the observational tower erected at the Vatican by Pope Gregory XIII in 1578 in preparation for reforming the Western calendar. The tower began being used for astronomy in 1800. Pope Leo XIII formally established the Vatican Observatory in 1891, and it has been entrusted to the Jesuits since 1934. Father Funes, the new director, was born in Cordoba, Argentina, in 1963 and earned a master's degree in astronomy from the National University of Cordoba in 1985.

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