Pope Leo XIV Names First Head of Major Vatican Department

Alongside Iannone, Pope Leo confirmed Brazilian Bishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari for a five-year term as secretary of the dicastery and extended the mandate of Monsignor Ivan Kovač of Bosnia and Herzegovina as undersecretary.

In addition to leading the bishops’ office, Iannone will take over as president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which manages relations between the Vatican and Latin American episcopal conferences.

A Carmelite and an experienced canon lawyer, Iannone currently serves as the prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Legislative Texts, making him the Holy See’s top legislator. 

Pope Francis named him president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts in 2018, promoting him over the office’s secretary in an unusual move. He became prefect of the newly reorganized dicastery in 2022.

In that role, Iannone was instrumental in revising Church law, including expanding the reach of Vos Estis Lux Mundi, a framework for investigating abuse, to include lay Catholic leaders. 

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Born in Naples on Dec. 13, 1957, Iannone entered the Carmelite order in 1976 and was ordained a priest in 1982. He taught canon law in Naples before being named auxiliary bishop of his native archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 2001. 

Benedict XVI named him bishop of the Italian Diocese of Sora-Cassino-Aquino-Pontecorvo in 2009 and later vicegerent of the Diocese of Rome, where he dealt with the fallout of a major hospital corruption scandal and was responsible for the reorganization of ecclesiastical courts.

Iannone is also a member of two study groups for the Synod on Synodality, examining the judicial role of bishops and methods for shared discernment on controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues.

After the death of Pope Francis, all of the heads of Vatican dicasteries technically lost their jobs with Pope Leo XIV only confirming them provisionally. Iannone’s appointment now leaves another important vacancy for the pope to fill in the Roman Curia.

Courtney Mares is a Rome Correspondent for Catholic News Agency. A graduate of Harvard University, she has reported from news bureaus on three continents and was awarded the Gardner Fellowship for her work with North Korean refugees.