José Gabriel Funes

Infobox Scientist
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birth_date = January 31 1963
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fields = astrophysics
workplaces = Vatican Observatory
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Fr. José Gabriel Funes, S.J. (born January 31, 1963 in Córdoba), an Argentine Jesuit priest and astronomer, is the current director of the Vatican Observatory. He has a master's degree in Astronomy from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba in Argentina and a doctorate from the University of Padua in Italy. He has also a bachelor's degree in philosophy from University del Salvador in Argentina and a bachelor's degree in theology from Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. A member of the Society of Jesus, he was ordained a priest in 1995. He joined the Vatican Observatory as a researcher in 2000, and was named its director on August 19, 2006 replacing Fr. George Coyne.

Selected Papers

"Extraterrestrials"

In an interview in May 2008 [ [http://padrefunes.blogspot.com Full text of L'Osservatore Romano inteview translated into English] .] he stated that the possible existence of intelligent extraterrestrials did not contradict church teaching [ [http://vaticandiplomacy.wordpress.com/2008/05/13/vatican-astronomer-says-believing-in-aliens-does-not-contradict-faith-in-god/ L'Osservatore Romano: "The extraterrestrial is my brother, Vatican astronomer says believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God"] .] [] and ruling out the existence of aliens would be like "putting limits" on God's creative freedom. [] He has speculated that such alien life forms could even be “free from Original Sin … [remaining] in full friendship with their creator.” [ [http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/14959 mental_floss Blog » “Aliens Are Our Brothers,” says Vatican] . ]

References

External links

* [http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/JFunes.html Curriculum Vitae]