Pope Leo Appoints Nigerian Priest To 2nd Highest Role In The Vatican

A Nigerian priest now occupies the second highest role in the Vatican Office that manages audiences with the Pope.

He is in the person of Edward Daniang Daleng, who has just been named by Pope Leo XIV as vice regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household.

The prefecture oversees very important functions in the Vatican including:

1. preparations for papal ceremonies,
2. the Holy Father’s spiritual exercises,
3. gatherings of the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia, and
4. arrangements whenever the pope leaves the Apostolic Palace to visit locations in Rome or elsewhere in Italy.

Daniang has served as a general councilor and, most recently, procurator general of the Order of St. Augustine, Pope Leo’s religious order. In that role, he managed the order’s business with the Holy See, the Catholic News Agency informs.

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He was ordained a priest on Sept. 10, 2005, and earned a doctorate in moral theology from the Pontifical Alphonsian Academy in Rome in 2012, with a thesis on “Respect for the Dignity and Care of Patients with Incurable and Terminal Illnesses.”

Daniang first met Pope Leo in 2001 when Father Robert Prevost, then prior general of the Augustinians, visited Nigeria. After moving to Rome in 2002, he became closer to Prevost.

He told Valentina Di Donato of EWTN News in August that he and Prevost have met and spoken many times over the decades.

“Something that struck me was his simplicity, his humility,” Daniang said. “That is how he was, how he is.”