Pope Leo XIV has appointed a longtime confrere and friend, Nigerian priest Edward Daniang Daleng, OSA, as vice regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, the second-highest position in the Vatican office that organizes audiences with the pope. 

The prefecture also takes care of the preparations related to papal ceremonies, the spiritual exercises of the Holy Father, and gatherings of the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia. Furthermore, it handles the necessary arrangements whenever the Holy Father leaves the Apostolic Palace to visit places within Rome or Italy.

Daniang has been a general councilor and, most recently, procurator general of the Order of St. Augustine — Pope Leo’s religious order. As procurator general, the priest was responsible for preparing and carrying out the order’s business with the Holy See.

Born on April 4, 1977, in Yitla’ar, Kwalla, Plateau state, in Nigeria, Daniang made his first profession in the Order of St. Augustine on Nov. 9, 2001, and his solemn vows on Nov. 13, 2004, at the age of 47.

He was ordained a priest on Sept. 10, 2005, and was awarded a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in Rome in 2012, with a thesis on “Respect for the Dignity and Care of Patients with Incurable and Terminal Illnesses.”

Daniang first met Pope Leo in 2001, when Father Robert Prevost, then prior general of the Augustinians, visited Nigeria. After moving to Rome in 2002, Daniang got to know Prevost even better.

He told Valentina Di Donato of EWTN News in August that he and Prevost have had many occasions to meet and speak over the ensuing decades.

“Something that struck me was his simplicity, his humility,” Daniang said. “That is how he was, how he is.”

Speaking to Vatican News after the election of Pope Leo XIV, Daniang also said that “Africa is in [Leo’s] heart” and that when he was prior general of the Augustinians, then-Father Prevost visited Nigeria at least 10 times.

“To understand how much my country mattered to him,” the priest continued, “just remember that after becoming prior general on his 46th birthday, Sept. 14, he was already with us in Nigeria by November.”

Valentina Di Donato, a producer in the Vatican Bureau of EWTN News, contributed to this report.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.