Leo XIV Strengthens the Vatican’s Social Leadership with Two New Appointments, Including Chilean Theologian Claudia Leal Luna

(ZENIT News / Vatican City, 11.05.2026).- Pope Leo XIV has appointed a Chilean lay theologian and an Angolan Jesuit as undersecretaries of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, placing two figures with markedly different backgrounds in key positions within the Vatican department responsible for the Church’s social mission. The appointments, announced on November 5, also reinforce the growing presence of women in the dicastery’s leadership under its prefect, Salesian Sister Alessandra Smerilli.

Claudia Leal Luna’s appointment is particularly significant. Less than three weeks earlier, on October 19, Leo XIV had named her among the 24 new members of the International Theological Commission, where she is expected to contribute to a five-year examination of the concept of Tradition. The commission, linked to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has been asked to address the ways in which Tradition can be manipulated for ideological purposes. Her new responsibilities now extend her influence into the Vatican’s work on human development, migration, social justice and the protection of human dignity.

Born in 1977, Leal Luna trained initially in law at the University of Chile, graduating in 2001, before pursuing theological studies in Rome. She obtained a degree in moral theology in 2008 and a doctorate in the same discipline in 2012 from the Alphonsian Academy. She subsequently taught at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile from 2012 to 2022, before joining the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome, where she has been a professor since 2022. She is also a consultant to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Her academic formation gives her appointment a distinctive profile: legal studies, moral theology and sustained work on marriage and family life. In her remarks following the announcement, she emphasized that the family is the first setting in which human development becomes a lived experience of care, whatever the cultural context. She also drew on her experience of living in different countries, observing that every border she has crossed has confirmed that development always concerns real people, with faces and names, and that no one should be regarded as a stranger in the Church.

Leal Luna will work alongside Smerilli, Cardinal Fabio Baggio, the dicastery’s pro-prefect, and its secretary, Archbishop Jozef Barlaš. Her appointment adds another woman to a leadership structure already headed by a religious sister, marking a further step in the participation of women in senior Vatican responsibilities.

The second new undersecretary, Jesuit Father Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, brings extensive experience of the dicastery itself. Born on July 15, 1979, in Lobito, in Angola’s Benguela Province, he entered the Society of Jesus in 2002 and was ordained a priest on August 3, 2014. He made his final vows on May 1, 2026. His academic qualifications include a master’s degree in social ethics, obtained in 2018, and a doctorate in contemporary international migration and development cooperation, completed in 2019.

Chico has served in the dicastery since 2020, initially as regional coordinator for Africa, then as head of its Listening and Dialogue Section from 2022 to 2025, and most recently as head of office. His promotion therefore reflects not only his academic preparation but also years of direct involvement in the institution’s work, particularly in areas closely connected to migration, dialogue and international cooperation.

He described his new responsibility as demanding and challenging, but said he felt supported by God, his superiors and colleagues. Reflecting on the appointment, he identified three words as the guiding principles of his service: presence, commitment and witness. He also invoked the biblical calling of Jeremiah, whose youth did not prevent him from being entrusted with a demanding mission.

For Leo XIV, the choices also signal the importance he attaches to strengthening the people responsible for translating the Church’s social teaching into practical engagement with the world.

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