Pope confirms 30 members of Dicastery for Bishops
February 16, 2026
Pope Leo XIV confirmed 30 members of the Dicastery for Bishops on February 14 and appointed a 31st: Sister Simona Brambilla, M.C., the prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.
In doing so, the Pontiff manifested that he desires strong continuity between his own episcopal appointments and the episcopal appointments made in recent years. In contrast, Pope Francis reshaped the membership of the then-Congregation for Bishops early in his pontificate.
The Dicastery for Bishops, of which Cardinal Robert Prevost was prefect from 2023 until his 2025 election to the papacy, is led by a prefect (Archbishop Filippo Iannone, O. Carm.) and a secretary (Archbishop Ilson de Jesus Montanari). The members of the dicastery are consulted when bishops are selected for non-missionary dioceses.
Twenty-two of the 31 members are cardinals. In addition to Sister Brambilla, seven members are prefects of Vatican dicasteries, and two members are women (Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State; and Ms. María Lía Zervino, former president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations).
The two American members of the dicastery are Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Joseph Tobin, C.Ss.R, of Newark, New Jersey.
Of the members appointed by Pope Francis in 2022, only one was not confirmed: Sister Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A., the former Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. She is now 81. Pope Leo confirmed the two members appointed in 2023.
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