Pope Leo names Australian bishop to lead Vatican's legal office

Pope Leo on Wednesday named an Australian bishop to lead the Vatican office that oversees the Catholic Church's extensive legal system, adding global diversity to the pontiff's close team of advisors in his second major Vatican appointment.

25 March 2026 at 12:35:38

Pope Leo names Australian bishop to lead Vatican's legal office

Pope Leo XIV holds the weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, March 18, 2026.

Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

VATICAN CITY - Pope Leo on Wednesday named an Australian bishop to lead the Vatican office that oversees the Catholic Church's extensive legal system, adding global diversity to the pontiff's close team of advisors in his second major Vatican appointment.

Anthony Randazzo, bishop of Broken Bay, near Sydney, will be the first Australian to lead a Vatican office since the late Cardinal George Pell was the Church's finance czar from 2014 to 2019.

Randazzo, 59, is relatively young to lead a Vatican office. He could serve in the role, responsible for organising and interpreting the Church's system of laws, for a decade or more.

His predecessor was Italian Archbishop Filippo Iannone, who Leo appointed in September to lead the Vatican office responsible for selecting Catholic bishops around the world.

-Reporting by Joshua McElwee, editing by Alvise Armellini/Reuters