Pope Leo XIV Names Nun to Head Vatican Development Office

Pope Leo XIV appointed Italian nun Sister Alessandra Smerilli to head the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, which oversees issues related to migrants, the environment and development. She currently serves as second-in-command in the dicastery and will succeed retiring Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny, who turns 80 this month.

The pope simultaneously named Cardinal Fabio Baggio, the dicastery's undersecretary, as pro-prefect.

Baggio also received the mandate to lead the Vatican’s Borgo Laudato Si environmental educational center at Castel Gandolfo near Rome. In a separate action, Pope Leo XIV sent a letter to the Rev. Davide Pagliarani, superior of the Society of St.

Pius X, urging the group to abandon plans to consecrate four new bishops at its seminary in Econe, Switzerland. The letter was issued one day before the scheduled consecrations. ” He added that the planned act would deprive the faithful of licit and in some cases valid reception of the sacraments.

Under church law, consecrating bishops without papal consent incurs automatic excommunication. The Society of St. Pius X was founded in opposition to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, consecrated four bishops without papal consent in 1988, leading to his excommunication and that of the new bishops.

The group currently has no legal status in the Catholic Church and counts two bishops, 751 priests and members from 50 nationalities.