Vatican, Leo redesigns the Curia: an Italian returns to the key position of Substitute

An Italian is back in the Curia's probably most important post, and in any case just below the Secretary of State. Leo XIV, who has just returned from the Principality of Monaco, made official the new Substitute for General Affairs, who is Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, now Apostolic Nuncio in Colombia. Linked to this decision are the other two appointments: the current Substitute, Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, in office since 2018, becomes apostolic nuncio to Italia (not exactly a promotion), while the nuncio to Italia, Croatian Archbishop Petar Rajič, becomes the new Prefect of the Papal Household, a post that had been vacant since 2023 since Archbishop Georg Gänswein ended his tenure and was then appointed nuncio to the Baltic countries (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania).

An important round of appointments, therefore, that indicates the Curia's 'governance' structure according to Leo. The deputy for the General Affairs of the Secretariat of State is, as mentioned, among the most important and delicate posts in the entire Vatican apparatus, a sort of "minister of the Interior" of the Vatican City State, the "number three", who holds most of the most important dossiers and sees the Pope practically every day or almost every day, which is rare apart from the secretaries. So it will be Rudelli - whose name has been circulating for days - one of the key figures: 56 years old in July, from Gandino, Bergamo, a priest since '95, incardinated in Bergamo and with a degree in moral theology, until now apostolic nuncio in Colombia. Appointed by Francis, who ordained him archbishop in 2019 and then sent him as his representative in Zimbabwe in January 2020, transferring him from Strasbourg where he was the Holy See's permanent observer at the Council of Europe.

But Rudelli's experience in the Holy See's diplomatic service goes back more than twenty years, to 2001, with work at the papal representations in Ecuador and Poland and the General Affairs Section of the Secretariat of State. Section of which he now becomes the head at the behest of Pope Leo XIV, in his second major appointment in the Secretariat of State, following last November's appointment of the assessor, Nigerian theologian and canonist Anthony Onyemuche Ekpo, previously undersecretary of the Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. "The Holy Father Leo's call to collaborate closely in the exercise of his supreme mission as a substitute in the Secretariat of State is a gesture of undeserved confidence, which deeply honours me," Rudelli himself commented in a note. "Animated by faith", he assures that he "will take on this service in the spirit indicated by the apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium", and in the knowledge that he "can count on the guidance of the Cardinal Secretary of State and on the collaboration of Monsignor Assessor and all the staff of the General Affairs Section". In particular, the new substitute relies on the "intercession" of an illustrious fellow countryman of his, St. John XXIII.

A new appointment then for Pena Parra, who had succeeded Angelo Becciu and had governed the Curia machine during very complex times, above all the Sloane Avenue scandal, resolved with a maxi hole for the Vatican coffers and resulting in an endless trial that has now been effectively annulled. "There has been no lack of moments of institutional suffering, such as the trial linked to the London Palace affair, which exposed the Holy See and in particular our Secretariat of State to unprecedented media and judicial attention, demanding rigour, transparency and a sense of responsibility. In each of these circumstances, the General Affairs Section has been called upon to guard, coordinate, and support a silent, often invisible, but essential service to the life of the universal Church," said the outgoing Substitute and thanked "the Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and the Superiors of the other two sections," Msgr. Paul Richard Gallagher, Msgr. Jan Pawłowski first and Msgr. Luciano Russo now, the Assessors who have succeeded one another over the years," and all the other members of the Secretariat. "In the most complex moments, when decisions had to be made quickly and thoughtfully, even at the most unusual times," he said, "I always knew I could count on you.