Pope names Dominican sister to lead Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (Our Sunday Visitor)

On April 1, Pope Francis appointed Sister Helen Alford, OP, the dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Angelicum, as the president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Sister Alford succeeds Stefano Zamagni, 80, an Italian economist who has served as the academy’s president since 2019.

Pope St. John Paul II founded the academy in 1994 “with the aim of promoting the study and progress of the social sciences, primarily economics, sociology, law and political science,” according to its statutes. Its members need not be Catholic, but “are appointed by the Holy Father on the basis of their competencies in the social sciences and of their moral integrity.”