On Friday, 26 September, Pope Leo XIV appointed Archbishop Filippo Iannone, until now Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a role that also includes presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. The announcement of Archbishop Iannone’s appointment came in the daily Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, which noted that the Archbishop will take up his new post on 15 October 2025. Archbishop Iannone’s appointment is the first nomination of a head of a Dicastery made by Pope Leo. The only other appointment to a senior role in a Roman Curia body had been made on May 22 – just days after his election – when he named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a nun of the Institute of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, as secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Apostolic Societies.
Archbishop Iannone, a native of Naples who will turn 68 on December 13, is a Carmelite, jurist, and canon lawyer with extensive experience in courts, pontifical universities, and the archdiocese. Archbishop Iannone is now charged with continuing the work that the future Pope had undertaken for two years. The role of Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops is a delicate one: assisting the Pope in choosing the pastors to whom he will entrust the ecclesial communities throughout the world. After identifying priests to propose for the episcopate, the final decision rests with the Pope. To assist in this mission, Francis appointed three women as members of the Dicastery for Bishops in July 2022: Sister Raffaella Petrini, current president of the Governorate of Vatican City State; Yvonne Reungoat, former superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; and Maria Lia Zervino, former president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations (WUFC).
