He was the Director of the Vatican Observatory from August 19, 2006, until September 18, 2015, when he was succeeded by Pope Francis's appointment of Brother Guy Consolmagno, S.J.

[1][2] Funes serves on the Advisory Council of METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence).

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 joined the Vatican Observatory as a researcher in 2000, and was named its director on August 19, 2006, replacing Fr.

[7] He has speculated that such alien life forms could even be “free from Original Sin ... [remaining] in full friendship with their creator.”[8] He is also on record as stating "I continue to believe that God created the universe, and that we are not the product of chance, but the children of a good father, who has a design for us based on love," though he does believe in the Big Bang.