Pope Leo XIV named Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the substitute secretary for general affairs at the Vatican Secretariat of State, as the apostolic nuncio to Italy and the Republic of San Marino, the Vatican said.
Archbishop Peña Parra’s new assignment was among several papal appointments the Vatican announced March 30. The pope named Italian Archbishop Paolo Rudelli, who served as apostolic nuncio to Colombia since 2023, as the new substitute secretary, a role equivalent to a papal chief of staff.
In a statement published March 30 by SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops’ conference, Archbishop Rudelli called his appointment “a gesture of undeserved trust, which deeply honors me.”
Entrusting his new role to the intercession of St. John XXIII, the Italian prelate said he was ready to take on “this service in the spirit indicated by the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium.”
The pope also named Archbishop Petar Rajic, who served as apostolic nuncio to Italy and San Marino as prefect of the Papal Household, a role that has been left vacant for several years.
The last to hold the title was Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the longtime personal secretary of the late Pope Benedict XVI who now serves as apostolic nuncio to the Baltic states. In 2020, the German prelate, although allowed to retain his title as “prefect,” was assigned by Pope Francis to assist Pope Benedict XVI. His term officially ended in 2023 and no one was assigned as his successor until now.
–‘A renewed call to service’–
In a letter addressed to Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and staff members at the Secretariat of State, Archbishop Peña Parra reflected on his time at the dicastery as well as his years of service, comparing his life to that of “a train that sets off toward a final destination.”
“It has been intense and interesting, full of lessons and challenges; a remarkably beautiful and enriching adventure, especially because of the people whom Divine Providence has allowed me to meet,” he wrote.
He also noted both difficult moments during his tenure, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the death of Pope Benedict XVI as well as the illness and subsequent death of Pope Francis. The Venezuelan archbishop also highlighted the “delicate phases leading up to the conclave, which culminated in the joyful election of Pope Leo XIV, who was welcomed as a gift of the Spirit to the Church.”
Most notably, Archbishop Peña Parra also highlighted “moments of institutional suffering,” including the trial related to the London property scandal.
The Vatican’s controversial investment in a property in London led to huge financial losses was a problem inherited by the archbishop from his predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
Cardinal Becciu, along with several defendants, was found guilty and sentenced to five and half years in prison. However, the Vatican’s appeals court declared a partial mistrial March 17, citing procedural errors by Vatican prosecutors.
Archbishop Peña Parra, who testified at the trial in 2023, said the legal proceedings “exposed the Holy See — and in particular our Secretariat of State — to unprecedented media and judicial scrutiny, requiring rigor, transparency, and a sense of responsibility on our part.”
“In each of these circumstances, the Section for General Affairs was called upon to safeguard, coordinate and sustain a service that is quiet, often invisible, yet essential to the life of the universal Church,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, the Venezuelan prelate likened his time at the Secretariat of State to a high-speed train “since the life of the Church moves quickly.”
“At a certain point, the Lord has us board a train car, entrusts us with a stage of the journey, and asks us to care for the passengers we encounter,” he said. “Later on, we arrive at a station, which is not the end of the journey, but a transition. We get off, hand the next stage over to others, and we change direction. The train continues its journey.”
“The train of life continues its journey; what matters is remaining faithful to the Master who calls us to board, to disembark and to set out again, always for the love of his Church,” the archbishop said.
–Other appointments as Holy Week starts–
On March 30, the pope also named two new members to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, including Susan Lynn Bissell, a Canadian academic and visiting scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University; and French lawyer Laurent Delvolvé, a member of the Paris Bar Association.
Pope Leo also named several new members to the Dicastery for Integral Human Development, including Father Daniel Groody, vice president and associate provost for undergraduate education at the University of Notre Dame; Meghan J. Clark, professor of moral theology and assistant chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University in New York; and Léocadie Lushombo, assistant professor of theological ethics at Santa Clara University in Berkley, Calif.
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