Fr. Rimaycuna Inga had met then-Father Robert Prevost in the Diocese of Chiclayo, and was his secretary while Prevost was a cardinal.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — According to Spanish and Italian media outlets, Pope Leo XIV has kept his former private secretary in the role now he has been elected Pontiff.
Over the past number of days, a flurry of media reports have noted how Father Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga has been made secretary to the newly elected Pope Leo XIV.
Aged 35, Rimaycuna Inga had previously been serving as private secretary to Prevost as cardinal in his capacity as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. He arrived to Rome for the role in October 2023 upon the request of Prevost himself.
Ordained a priest for the Diocese of Chiclayo – which Prevost led from 2015 through 2023 – Rimaycuna Inga met Prevost while in seminary for the diocese.
He then undertook studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome from 2017, after serving in Chiclayo cathedral for a year as a newly ordained priest.
Most recently the young priest also ministered in a town in Italy’s northwestern coastal region of Liguria.
Having served as secretary for Prevost in the Dicastery for Bishops, Rimaycuna Inga will now form a key part of Prevost’s household as he begins his pontificate.
As attested to by social media postings, the pair have formed a close, working relationship which is something Leo will draw on heavily especially during his early months as Pope.
Various staff in the papal household under Pope Francis have remained in place, including Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza who is the regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household.
The Prefecture is comprised of a number of staff, led by the prefect, who is in turn assisted by the regent.
The prefect of the papal household has been a vacant position since the departure of Archbishop Georg Gänswein in February 2023.
Gänswein himself had been secretary for Pope Benedict XVI before the German pope’s election and thence through his papacy and retirement. After Francis dismissed Gänswein from his position as prefect following Benedict’s death in January 2023, Gänswein returned – or was evicted – to Germany, and subsequently was named as nuncio to Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.
The prefect of the papal household has been a vacant position since the departure of Archbishop Georg Gänswein in February 2023.
The papal secretary does not form part of the official Prefecture of the Papal Household, though will be a daily presence in the house of the pontiff in the Apostolic Palace, along with Prefecture staff.
Pope Francis availed himself of a number of secretaries in his latter years, with Father Daniel Pellizzón from Argentina and Father Fabio Salerno from Calabria most recently serving together.
Francis famously changed his secretaries much more regularly than Benedict XVI and John Paul II, and Vatican insiders have also reported that Francis’ use of multiple secretaries and frequent personnel changes was to prevent build up of undue power, preferring instead to reserve such power to himself.
Only in his mid-30s, Rimaycuna Inga’s responsibilities have now taken on a incredible global impact and will thrust the priest into the heart of the Vatican Curia and life of the new Pope. Such a position for one so young, and so recently ordained, is notable.
Indeed, he might perhaps be the youngest papal secretary of recent years.
For comparison, Pellizzón was 40 when he became Francis’ secretary, and Gänswein 46 when he became Ratzinger’s. Pellizzón’s predecessor, Father Gonzalo Aemilius, was 41 when he started service for Francis, while his predecessor, Father Fabián Pedacchio, was 49 when he started service for Francis.
The only man younger at the time of being appointed secretary to a pontiff was Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, who was made private secretary for then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla at the age of just 27. Dziwisz remained secretary for Wojtyla all the way until the Polish pope’s death, becoming papal secretary at the age of 39.
