Leo XIV Names Two Undersecretaries for Human Development
The appointments bring a Jesuit experienced in African migration work and a lay moral theologian into the dicastery's daily leadership.
On November 5, 2026, Pope Leo XIV appointed Jesuit Father Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico and Professor Claudia Leal Luna as undersecretaries of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The appointments fill the undersecretary post left vacant after Msgr. Jozef Barlaš was named secretary of the same dicastery.
The dicastery is headed by Sister Alessandra Smerilli as prefect, with Cardinal Fabio Baggio as pro-prefect and Msgr. Barlaš as secretary. The Holy See’s move places both a priest long active in the dicastery’s African and pastoral work and a lay moral theologian at the heart of its day-to-day leadership.
Fr. Chicoma: presence, commitment, witness
Father Avelino Chicoma, 47, was born July 15, 1979, in Lobito, in Angola’s Benguela province. He entered the Society of Jesus in 2002, was ordained a priest on August 3, 2014, and made his perpetual profession on May 1, 2026. He holds a master’s degree in social ethics (2018) and a doctorate on contemporary international migration and development cooperation (2019).
He has served in the dicastery since 2020, serving as regional coordinator for Africa from 2020 to 2022, head of the “Listening and Dialogue” section from 2022 to 2025, and office head since 2025. Reflecting on the new charge, he said he likes to think of the role “in terms of three words: presence, commitment, and witness.” He added that the responsibility ahead is “demanding and challenging,” yet he feels “supported by God, my superiors, and everyone,” recalling the Lord’s words to Jeremiah: “Do not say, ‘I am young.’ … Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to protect you.”
Claudia Leal: development with a face and a name
Professor Claudia Leal Luna, 48, was born December 12, 1977. She earned a degree in legal and social sciences from the University of Chile in 2001, then a licentiate (2008) and doctorate (2012) in moral theology at the Alphonsian Academy in Rome. She taught at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile from 2012 to 2022 and has been a full professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome since 2022.
She is a consultor to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of the International Theological Commission. She was among the 26 experts invited to the Vatican gathering of presidents of bishops’ conferences held October 7–14 for the tenth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia. “Every border I have crossed has confirmed for me that human development always has a face and a name, and that no one is a stranger in the Church,” she said.
The appointments underscore the Holy Father’s care for the Church’s social teaching in service of the whole person—body and soul—while entrusting concrete responsibility to a Jesuit formed in migration and African realities and to a lay woman rooted in moral theology and the family.