Fr. Pablo Carlos Sicouly, OP, Vicar of the Master and Socius for Intellectual Life, has been appointed a member of the Governing Council of AVEPRO, the Holy See’s agency for assessment of ecclesiastical universities and faculties.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV has appointed fr. Pablo Carlos Sicouly, OP, Vicar of the Master and Socius of the Master for Intellectual Life, as a member of the Governing Council of the Holy See’s Agency for the Evaluation and Promotion of Quality in Ecclesiastical Universities and Faculties, commonly known as AVEPRO.
The appointment was announced by the Holy See Press Office on 15 June 2026.
Also appointed to the Governing Council were Prof. Loreto Bernardita Moya Marchant, Dean of the Ecclesiastical Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso in Chile; Prof. Debora Tonelli, representative of Georgetown University in Rome; and Dr. Melanie Rosenbaum, an official of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
Established in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI, AVEPRO promotes and develops a culture of quality within ecclesiastical universities and faculties directly dependent on the Holy See. The agency assists these academic institutions in meeting internationally recognized standards and in strengthening their service to the Church’s intellectual and educational mission.
Fr. Pablo Carlos Sicouly, OP, is a member of the Argentine Province of St. Augustine. Born in Buenos Aires in 1954, he studied law at the Catholic University of Santa Maria in Buenos Aires before entering the novitiate of the Province in Mar del Plata in 1979.
He is a professor of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology at the Study Center of the Province of Argentina and at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Within the Order of Preachers, fr. Pablo has long served the mission of study and formation.
In 2015, he was named Promoter of Studies for CIDALC, the Interprovincial Conference of Dominicans in Latin America and the Caribbean. In this role, he has contributed to the program of complementary studies for friars of the region, in collaboration with the Faculty of Theology of San Esteban in Salamanca, in the Province of Hispania.
On 7 January 2018, he was appointed Socius of the Master for Intellectual Life. On 25 February 2023, the Master of the Order, fr. Gerard Francisco Timoner III, OP, appointed him Vicar of the Master of the Order. He succeeded fr. Mark Christopher Padrez, OP, who served as Vicar of the Master from 23 May 2021.
Fr. Pablo’s appointment to AVEPRO is a significant recognition of his service to theological formation, ecclesiastical higher education, and the intellectual mission of the Church and the Order of Preachers.
