Vatican City, Sep 26, 2025 /
07:00 am
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Italian Archbishop Filippo Iannone as prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, a department the pope himself once led.
The appointment, announced Sept. 26, marks Leo’s first selection of a head of a major Vatican office since his election in May.
Leo chose Iannone, a respected Italian canon lawyer and the Vatican’s top legislator, to fill the post he himself held as then-Cardinal Robert Prevost from 2023 until becoming pope.
Iannone, 67, will officially assume his new responsibilities Oct. 15. As the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, he will play a key role in the selection process for diocesan bishops and in the evaluation of abuse allegations against bishops.
The ultimate decision in appointing bishops rests with the pope, and he is free to select anyone he chooses. Usually, the pope’s representative in a country, the apostolic nuncio, passes on recommendations and documentation to the Vatican. The Dicastery for Bishops then discusses the appointment in a further process and takes a vote. On being presented with the recommendations, the pope makes the final decision.
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.
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. She is the author of “Blessed Carlo Acutis: A Saint in Sneakers” (Ignatius, 2023), https://ignatius.com/carlo-acutis-sscap/.
