{"id":32157,"date":"2026-06-30T14:51:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=32157"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T21:51:48","slug":"sister-smerilli-appointed-new-prefect-of-the-dicastery-for-promoting-integral-human-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2026\/06\/30\/sister-smerilli-appointed-new-prefect-of-the-dicastery-for-promoting-integral-human-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Sister Smerilli Appointed New Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(<strong>ANS \u2013 Vatican<\/strong>) \u2013 <strong>Pope Leo XIV<\/strong> has appointed a woman to a senior leadership role in the Roman Curia. <strong>Sister Alessandra Smerilli<\/strong>, a Salesian religious sister who previously served as secretary of the same dicastery, has been named Prefect of the <strong>Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development<\/strong>, succeeding <strong>Cardinal Michael Czerny<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pope had previously expressed, in his only interview during his first year of pontificate with journalist <strong>Elise Allen<\/strong>, his intention to \u201cfollow in the footsteps of Francis by appointing women to certain leadership roles at various levels within the life of the Church.\u201d This appointment continues that direction, as another woman is entrusted with leadership of a Vatican dicastery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Third Female Prefect in the Roman Curia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This marks <strong>Pope Leo XIV\u2019s<\/strong> second appointment of a woman to a high-level Curial position, following the naming of laywoman <strong>Montse Alvarado<\/strong> as Prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. It also represents the third female prefect in the Roman Curia, following <strong>Sister Simona Brambilla<\/strong>, appointed by <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong> as Prefect of the <strong>Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life<\/strong> el <strong>January 6, 2025<\/strong>. At that time, <strong>Cardinal \u00c1ngel Fern\u00e1ndez Artime<\/strong> was appointed pro-prefect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A parallel transition is also taking place with <strong>Cardinal Fabio Baggio<\/strong>, who\u2014according to the Holy See Press Office bulletin\u2014moves from undersecretary for Integral Human Development to pro-prefect of the dicastery, with special responsibility for the <strong>Laudato Si\u2019 Center for Higher Education<\/strong>. He will serve alongside <strong>Prefect Smerilli<\/strong>, with both appointments taking effect on <strong>September 1, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Work at the Vatican<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An economist, academic, and professor at the <strong>Auxilium Institute in Milan<\/strong>, <strong>Sister Alessandra Smerilli<\/strong> is known for her work in social justice, the social economy, and inclusion. Born in <strong>Vasto<\/strong>, Italy, she graduated from <strong>Roma Tre University<\/strong> and holds a PhD in Economics from the United Kingdom. She has been a member of the <strong>Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters)<\/strong> since 1997.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She has held several significant roles within the Vatican\u2019s structures. In 2019, she was appointed Councilor of <strong>Vatican City State<\/strong>. In 2020, she coordinated the economics section of the Vatican COVID-19 Task Force, established to respond to the global health and socioeconomic crisis caused by the pandemic. In 2021, she became undersecretary for the Faith and Development sector within the <strong>Dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development (DSSUI)<\/strong>, later serving ad interim secretary, and in 2022 was confirmed as secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Dicastery\u2019s Broad Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, <strong>Sister Smerilli<\/strong> worked alongside <strong>Cardinal Czerny<\/strong> in leading the dicastery headquartered at <strong>Palazzo San Calisto<\/strong> in Rome\u2019s Trastevere district. The dicastery was formed in 2017 through the merger of several pontifical councils\u2014<strong>Justice and Peace<\/strong>, <strong>Cor Unum<\/strong>, <strong>Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People<\/strong>y <strong>Pastoral Health Care Workers<\/strong>\u2014with the goal of promoting the dignity of the human person in all dimensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The dicastery\u2019s mission covers social, humanitarian, health, and environmental concerns, operating as a kind of \u201cministry of social affairs\u201d for the Holy See. Its global initiatives span five continents under the framework of \u201cintegral human development,\u201d structured internally into three main areas: Listening and Dialogue, Reflection and Research, and Communication and Outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, the dicastery has also addressed emerging global challenges such as artificial intelligence, alongside ongoing concerns including poverty, migration, environmental protection, disarmament, finance, war, justice, and humanitarian aid. It is part of the newly established interdicasterial commission on AI, created in May to promote collaboration and information sharing on this rapidly evolving field, which <strong>Pope Leo XIV<\/strong> addressed in his encyclical <em>Magnifica Humanitas<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source: Vatican News<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(ANS \u2013 Vatican) \u2013 Pope Leo XIV has appointed a woman to a senior leadership role in the Roman Curia. Sister Alessandra Smerilli, a Salesian religious sister who previously served as secretary of the same dicastery, has been named Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, succeeding Cardinal Michael Czerny. The Pope had previously expressed, in his only interview during his first year &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2026\/06\/30\/sister-smerilli-appointed-new-prefect-of-the-dicastery-for-promoting-integral-human-development\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continuar leyendo <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sister Smerilli Appointed New Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":32161,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[299562,516714022,77416],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holy-father","category-salesian-world-news","category-vatican-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-30-Sister-Smerilli-feature.jpg?fit=1600%2C875&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-8mF","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32163,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32157\/revisions\/32163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}