The appointment also includes the positions of vicar general for Vatican City and president of the Fabric of St. Peter.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, a 61-year-old Italian Franciscan, as the new archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The appointment also includes the positions of vicar general for Vatican City and president of the Fabric of St. Peter, the body responsible for the conservation of the basilica.
Archbishop Viola thus leaves the Secretariat of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, a position he had held since 2021. To succeed him, the Pope appointed Bishop Aurelio García Macías, until now undersecretary of the same organization.
Born on Oct. 4, 1965, in Biella, in northern Italy, Viola belongs to the Order of Friars Minor. He was ordained a priest in 1993 and holds a doctorate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome.
Before arriving at the Roman Curia, he carried out much of his ministry in Assisi. Between 1999 and 2005 he was custodian of the convent and the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels at the Porziuncola. He also headed Caritas of Assisi between 2008 and 2014.
