Pope Leo XIV has appointed an Australian church lawyer, Bishop Anthony Randazzo, to a pivotal Vatican legal position, placing an individual with direct experience of the Catholic Church’s profound abuse crisis into a powerful role.
Bishop Randazzo, 59, will now serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, effectively becoming the Holy See’s chief legal expert.
This significant office is responsible for drafting and interpreting the Catholic Church’s internal canon law, alongside providing legal advice on other critical matters, including for the Vatican City State.
He takes over from Archbishop Filippo Iannone, who was moved to another Vatican department in September.
Before his appointment as bishop, Randazzo pursued canon law studies at the Jesuit Pontifical Gregorian University and spent five years working within the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
This department is notably tasked with processing clergy sexual abuse cases from around the world.
His time there coincided with the fallout from Australia’s Royal Commission, which conducted an in-depth investigation into decades of child abuse by priests and subsequent cover-ups by bishops.
The commission uncovered a “wretched legacy,” revealing that 7 per cent of Australian Catholic priests were accused of abuse between 1950 and 2010, with 4,444 individuals identifying as victims.
Randazzo was therefore in a position to directly address the consequences of this crisis.
Leo is also a canon lawyer, and the appointment of an Anglophone legal expert familiar with the grave shortcomings of the way the church mishandled the abuse crisis is perhaps telling.
While Leo has given no indication that he intends to make changes, canon lawyers, victims and outside experts have faulted the canonical system and the way it has been used as part of the problem.
Closer to home, the recent Vatican financial trial involving a cardinal has also revealed the limitations of the city state’s outdated criminal and procedural codes.
In a statement on his Facebook page Wednesday, Randazzo said he was grateful for Leo’s trust. He said he would remain in Australia for the next three months before moving to Rome.
