Pope Leo XIV, continuing to build his new administration, has appointed Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the vicar general of Rome, as two new members of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State, the Vatican announced today.
The commission is the legislative body of the city state and was established in 1939. It has the power to approve laws and normative provisions, including the annual and three-year financial plans, for the smallest state in the world. Its laws must be approved by the pope, who as sovereign is head of the city state, and published in the relevant section of the official Acta Apostolicae Sedis before they can come into force.
The pontifical commission consists of a president, who is also the president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, and six cardinals appointed by the pope.
The current president of the commission—the first female governor of the Vatican City State—is Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., 56, an Italian nun who Pope Francis appointed on Feb. 15 (when he was in the Gemelli Hospital) and who took up the post on March 1.
Today’s appointments are seen as a vote of confidence by the pope in the two cardinals—Cupich and Reina—who are considered excellent administrators in their respective dioceses and were highly regarded by Pope Francis. In 2014, the Argentine pope appointed Cupich as archbishop of Chicago, one of the largest dioceses in the United States, and gave him the red hat two years later. In 2024, Pope Francis entrusted Reina with the reorganization of the Rome diocese, a difficult task but one that he is reported to be doing well. He made him a cardinal some months later.
In Cardinal Cupich’s case, today’s appointment is seen in Rome as a sign of the esteem that Pope Leo has for the cardinal archbishop of Chicago, who recently came under fire from a number of bishops in the United States for giving a lifetime achievement award to Illinois’s Senator Dick Durbin, who later turned it down. As cardinals, the two men had worked together as members of the Dicastery for Bishops for over five years, including from 2023 to 2025 when the future pope was prefect of that office, and got to know each other well.
Furthermore, Cardinal Cupich is highly regarded in the Vatican for his work as head of the commission that Pope Francis tasked with carrying out an internal review of the organization and work of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
The appointment of these two cardinals is for five years.
In addition to the new appointments, Pope Leo confirmed four of the six cardinals who are already members of the commission, and tasked them with completing their existing five-year mandate. The four are: Kevin Farrell (United States), prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life; Arthur Roche (United Kingdom), prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; Lazarus You Heung-sik (South Korea), prefect of the Dicastery for the Clergy, and Claudio Gugerotti (Italy), prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches.
On the other hand, Pope Leo terminated the membership of two cardinals from the commission: Leonardo Sandri (Argentina), emeritus-prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, and Mauro Gambetti (Italy), president of the Fabric of St. Peter, which is responsible for the operation and upkeep of St. Peter’s Basilica.
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