Pope Francis has appointed English Sister Helen Alford, 58, President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. She has been a member of the academy since 2020, becoming the third woman to lead the Pontifical Academy.

The Vatican announced Alford’s appointment on April 1. The sister replaced Stefano Zamagni, an Italian economist.

Prior to this, women had presided over the academy twice before: Mary Ann Glendon, an American lawyer and Margaret Archer, a British sociologist.

Academy

Since 2021, Alford has been Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, also known as Angelicum. Since 2020 he is a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

Pope John Paul II founded the academy in 1994. Social scientists from fields such as economics, sociology, law and political science study issues that are important to the Vatican. In addition, they are committed to the development and promotion of the application of Catholic social teaching.

Revive

In an interview with SSP in 2020, Sister Alford said it was important to “revive the whole idea of ​​Catholic social thought.”

“The Bible provides clear and concrete principles for living together in a way that recognizes the human dignity that God has given each person and promotes a good, just and peaceful social life,” he said in the interview.

Part of the task of Catholic social teaching, he said, is to help people realize that promoting the common good is not just altruistic. It is also a matter of recognizing one’s own relationships with others and nurturing one’s own need for relationships.

London and Dominican commercial engineer

Helen Alford was born in 1964 in London. He has a degree in Commercial Engineering from the University of Cambridge and has extensive experience in the UK industrial sector.

In 1994 she entered the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena. He teaches Catholic social teaching, business ethics and corporate social responsibility.