The pontiff on Nov. 5 named Father Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, SJ, and Claudia Leal Luna, to serve under the dicastery’s prefect, pro-prefect, and secretary.
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday appointed two new undersecretaries to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development — a priest from Angola and a laywoman from Chile — completing a change in leadership at the dicastery that began Sept. 1.
The pontiff on Nov. 5 named Father Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, SJ, and Claudia Leal Luna to fill the hole left by Monsignor Jozef Barlaš’ promotion to secretary of the dicastery.
From Angola, 47-year-old Chico has served in the dicastery since 2020, first as regional coordinator for Africa, then as manager of the “Listening and Dialogue” section, and finally, since 2025, as office manager.
He has a master’s degree in social ethics and a research doctorate in contemporary international migration and development cooperation.
Leal, 48, originally from Chile but living in Italy, has been a teacher at the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome since 2022.
She has a doctorate in moral theology and previously taught at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile from 2012 to 2022.
She is also a consulter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of the International Theological Commission.
Leal was one of 26 experts invited to participate in the Vatican’s weeklong gathering of the heads of bishops’ conferences on the 10th anniversary of Amoris Laetitia Oct. 7–14.
The laywoman has two children.
Nomination of members of the Dicastery for Evangelization
Pope Leo on Nov. 5 also named new members for the Dicastery for Evangelization, in the section for the first evangelization and the new particular churches, including former papal nuncio to the United States, Cardinal Christophe Pierre.
He also named as members Cardinal Mario Zenari, former nuncio in Syria; Bishop Ambrogio Spreafico, bishop emeritus of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino and Anagni-Alatri in Italy; and Bishop Maurizio Malvestiti of Lodi in Italy.
This article was originally published by EWTN News English.
