Pope Francis appoints the first lay head of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia

Pope Francis on Friday appointed the first lay head of the disciplinary commission of the Roman Curia.

The Holy See press office announced on January 8 that the pope had appointed Vincenzo Buonomo, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, president of the Disciplinary Commission of the Roman Curia.

Buonomo succeeds the Italian bishop Giorgio Corbellini, who held the role from 2010 until his death on 13 November 2019.

The commission, founded in 1981, is the main disciplinary body of the curia, the administrative apparatus of the Holy See. He is responsible for determining the sanctions against curial employees accused of misconduct, ranging from suspension to dismissal.

Buonomo, 59, is a professor of international law who has served as a consultant to the Holy See since the 80s.

He collaborated with Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Vatican secretary of state from 1979 to 1990, and with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state from 2006 to 2013. He edited a book of the speeches of Cardinal Bertone.

Pope Francis appointed the law professor as a councilor of Vatican City in 2014.

Buonomo made history in 2018 when he became the first lay professor to be appointed rector of the Pontifical Lateran University, also known as the "University of the Pope".

The disciplinary commission is made up of a president and six members appointed for five years by the pope.

Its first president was the Venezuelan Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara, who served from 1981 to 1990. He was succeeded by the Italian Cardinal Vincenzo Fagiolo, who led the commission from 1990 to 1997, when he stepped aside for the Italian Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, who served as president until 1999.

Spanish Cardinal Julián Herranz Casado supervised the commission from 1999 to 2010.

The Holy See press office also announced on January 8 the appointment of two new members of the commission: Msgr. Alejandro W. Bunge, Argentine president of the Labor Office of the Apostolic See, and the Spanish layman Maximino Caballero Ledero, general secretary of the Vatican Economic Secretariat.