Filipino priest appointed to Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences

Pope Francis has named Filipino Dominican Fr. Albino Barrera as a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

The Vatican announced the 65-year-old priest’s appointment on Tuesday, said a report by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ CBCP News.

The report said the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences aimed to study the progress of social sciences, such as law, economics, sociology, and political science. It was established by Pope John Paul II in 1994.

Barrera is based in the United States, where he serves as a moral theologian and economics and theology professor at Providence College in Rhode Island.

After studying engineering at De La Salle University, he earned his doctorate degree in economics from Yale University in 1998.

Later, he got a degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. in 1994.

Apart from being an author for many publications, he received his Master of Sacred Theology degree from the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 2013.

He was born in Manila and ordained a priest for the Dominican Order in 1993. – Franchesca Viernes/RC, GMA News