Join us on September 7th for our next Full Moon-th On-line Meetup!

Our guest will be none other than Rev. Richard A. D’Souza, S.J., the incoming Director of the Vatican Observatory! He takes the reins from Br. Guy on September 19th.

Our tradition of hosting online meetups with our Sacred Space Astronomy members and the Vatican Observatory staff, scholars and friends during the Full Moon in Tucson (or thereabout) continues on Sunday September 7, 2025 at 12:00 Noon ET,  9:00 AM Tucson time (with daylight savings time). or 16:00 UTC.

This meetup is a perk for our Sacred Space Astronomy subscribers- you get to chat with each other, and astronomers and scientists from the Vatican Observatory!

We’ll also discuss the latest astronomy news and an update about the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope.

Fr. Richard D’Souza, SJ was born in 1978 in Pune, India and hails from Goa, India. His initial school years were spent in Kuwait. From 1990, he moved back to his home state of Goa, India and joined a Jesuit school.

After finishing his schooling, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1996, and finished his two years noviciate in Belgaum, India. This was followed by a year of study of the humanities (Junior ate) in Pune. In 2002, he completed his graduation in Physics at St.Xaviers’ college in Mumbai and proceeded for his Masters in Physics to the University of Heidelberg, where he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy for his thesis work.

He returned to Pune in 2005 to complete a Bachelors degree in Philosophy. In 2007, he founded and ran the St. Paul’s Community College in Belgaum to help school dropouts find gainful employment. After finishing his Bachelors in Theology in 2011 in Pune, he retuned to Goa and ran a popular theology programme for the laity called “Deepen Your Faith”.

In 2012, he started his doctoral studies in Astronomy at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, in Garching, Munich, graduating in 2016. In 2016, he formally joined the staff of the Vatican Observatory as well started at the same time a postdoc at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. In 2019, he moved to the headquarters of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo. Since 2022, he has been serving as the Superior of the Jesuit community attached to the Vatican Observatory.