Vatican City – With a decree announced today by the Holy See Press Office, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has appointed Cardinal Blase Joseph Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago (United States of America), and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, Vicar General of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome, as Members of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
At the same time, the Holy Father confirmed for the current mandate Cardinals Kevin Joseph Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Arthur Roche, Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Lazzaro You Heung-sik, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy; and Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
These new appointments fill the vacancies left by Cardinal Leonardo Sandri and Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who became Supreme Pontiff on May 8, 2025.
A key body within the Vatican State structure
The Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State is the body that exercises the legislative function within the State, in accordance with the Fundamental Law of May 13, 2023, promulgated by Pope Francis and still in force today.
Its role is to approve laws and normative provisions regulating the life of the State, as well as to deliberate the annual and three-year financial plans. Article 7 of the Fundamental Law establishes that “the legislative function, except in cases reserved to the Supreme Pontiff, is exercised by the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.”
A cardinal jurist, commenting yesterday afternoon—when it was anticipated that these appointments would be made public today—remarked pointedly: “We are certain that the cases the Pope will reserve to himself will be very few. We must once again be recognized as a State governed by law, something that in recent years, unfortunately, has been lost.”
Indeed, according to Article 8, “the Pontifical Commission is composed of Cardinals, including the President, and other members, all appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.”
The President of the Commission is also the President of the Governorate, which exercises the executive power of the State. The Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General of the Governorate participate in meetings with a consultative vote, while the Counsellors of State, likewise appointed by the Pope, provide legal and technical opinionsduring the drafting of laws and regulations.
The legal knot of the Petrini case
It was precisely around the composition of the Pontifical Commission that one of the most significant legal controversies of Pope Francis’ pontificate had emerged in recent months.
On February 15, 2025, Pope Francis appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., then Secretary General of the Governorate, as President of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and President of the Governorate, effective March 1, 2025. The Pope had previewed the appointment during a television interview with a host who today—between sighs and tears—repeats: “We miss Francis.” In truth, it seems that more than nostalgia, it is the emptiness of the wallet being felt: one that had long benefited from prime-time papal interviews, born of favours and entanglements within a less-than-transparent milieu — that of the Nuovi Orizzonti community.
That decision, however, raised significant juridical doubts, which Silere non possum immediately put in writing, since Article 8 of the Fundamental Law clearly states that the Pontifical Commission is composed of Cardinals. The outlet noted that a religious sister could not be placed at the head of an entity whose nature is intrinsically cardinalatial, unless the legal text itself were formally amended.
After the media storm, while Francis was hospitalized, on February 25, 2025, the Press Office Bulletin announced that the Holy Father had “amended the Fundamental Law of the Vatican City State” to allow such an appointment. However, this amendment was never published either in L’Osservatore Romano or in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, as Article 24 of the same Law requires. And one cannot forget that an absolute ruler changing the law after having broken it is a pattern all too familiar in the Vatican’s history.
In fact, no legislative modification ever entered into force, and thus Sister Petrini’s appointment lacks formal legal foundation even today.
Balance and firmness
The inclusion of figures such as Cardinal Cupich, shepherd of one of the most important archdioceses in the United States, and Cardinal Reina, the Pope’s Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, represents a balance between universality and Roman centrality, consistent with Leo XIV’s vision of a Church that remains structurally solid yet open to dialogueamong the diverse components of the Catholic world.
It is also worth noting that Leo XIV, a canonist of strong formation, deliberately chose two cardinals—and not other figures—to serve on a commission as delicate as it is central to the institutional life of the Vatican State.
The appointment of Cardinal Blase Cupich also serves as a silent yet eloquent response to the hyper-traditionalist and pseudo-Catholic circles that in recent months had launched a defamatory campaign against him. Leo XIV does not respond with words, but with actions: he entrusts Cupich with a role in one of the most significant commissions in the Vatican’s governmental structure.
In today’s context, the Pontifical Commission remains a pillar of the Vatican City State’s independence, safeguarding the Holy See’s sovereignty and the continuity between the spiritual and institutional dimensions of the Petrine ministry.
At a time when the boundary between spiritual authority and temporal governance appears increasingly blurred, this quiet reform reaffirms an ancient principle: at the heart of the Vatican, law is never separated from service.
f.R.A.
Silere non possum