Pope Leo XIV issues Motu Proprio allowing non-cardinals, including laypeople, to preside over Vatican City Commission, confirming Sister Raffaella Petrini’s role.
Newsroom (21/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo XIV has permanently expanded eligibility for the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, removing the previous requirement that the position be held exclusively by a cardinal.
In a Motu Proprio published Friday, 21 November 2025, the Pope abrogated and replaced Article 8 of the Fundamental Law of Vatican City State, promulgated in June 2023. The revised text now reads: “The Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State is composed of Cardinals and other members, including the President, appointed by the Supreme Pontiff for a five-year term.”
The change eliminates language that had designated the president as necessarily one of the Commission’s cardinal members, thereby opening the office to bishops, priests, religious, and lay men or women.
The reform consolidates a modification introduced by Pope Francis on 1 March 2025, when he appointed Franciscan Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., as the first woman and first non-cardinal to serve simultaneously as president of the Pontifical Commission and of the Governorate of Vatican City State. Sister Petrini, an Italian religious and economist, continues in both roles.
In the apostolic letter, Pope Leo XIV described the Governorate’s mission as contributing “through its own structure” to the proper mission of Vatican City State in direct service to the Successor of Peter. He linked the reform to the principle of “co-responsibility within the communio” advanced by Pope Francis in the 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, noting that increasingly “complex and pressing” governance demands make the consolidation “timely.”
The Motu Proprio, signed on 19 November and published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, took effect immediately.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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