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Last May 19, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Rev Fr Avelino Chicoma Bundo Chico, an Angolan Jesuit priest as Office Head of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. Since 2020, Fr. Chico has been serving in the same Dicastery as Coordinator of the African Section on Migrants and Refugees within the same Dicastery.
By some coincidence, this appointment comes on the heels of a webinar: African Catholicism and the Papacy of Pope Leo XIV: Challenges and Opportunities organized by the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network (PACTPAN), during which, among many other things, Fr. Paulinus Udozor, Spiritan priest of Nigerian extraction and Professor of Moral Theology at Notre Dame University, bemoaned the absence of African experts within the administrative apparatus, namely the curia of the Vatican.
“Africa must demand a serious place at the table. Am not talking about episcopal appointment… we can no longer be asking just to be admitted to places at the table. We are equally Church. We are contributing to the vibrancy of the Church, and we can bring a lot,” declared Rev. Udozor. “There is currently no African heading any Dicastery at the Vatican”, he added, “and this is not right”, he concluded.
While the appointment of Fr. Chico might not rise to the heights of the concerns raised by Fr. Udozor, it is undoubtedly a good first step. It is worth noting that this is a papal appointment, and thus carries some gravitas.
Born in 1979 in Lobito, Angola, Fr. Chico became a Jesuit in 2002. He is an intelligent man of God, with an impressive academic pedigree, having bagged a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and humanities from Aruppe College and University, Zimbabwe, a degree in Theology from the Pontifical University Comillas, a Master’s Degree in Contemporary International Migration, and a PhD in Contemporary International Migration and Development Cooperation.
Migration is one of the social issues plaguing the people of Africa. In their 2022 message at the end of their plenary assembly meeting, the Bishops of Africa expressed their pains in “seeing our youth leaving our countries, knowing that they are going to suffer and possibly lose their lives, and we lament our inability to stop them from leaving.” An African voice at the Vatican on this issue is therefore indispensable.
One religious Order that has been at the cutting edge of migration issues in the Church is indisputably the Society of Jesus. In the foreword to a compilation of essays entitled: “Migratory Flows at the Borders of our world,” published in 2020, Jesuit Superior General Rev. Fr Arturo Sosa writes:
“The Society of Jesus has committed actively to promoting justice for migrants and refugees. Fr. Pedro Aruppe founded the Jesuit Refugee Service in 1980, and over the last 40 years, the Jesuits feel the migrants a grace and responsibility for us.” The book provides a wider lens through which to address issues of migration, by viewing what happens at borders in a global context, a global vision of borders from its most vulnerable agents, migrants. Fr. Avelino Chico contributed a chapter to this work: Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo Border: From a Place of Business to a point of entry of Illegal Immigration. He recommends that “mass deportations and closure of borders may not be the solution to illegal immigration. These proposals feed the emergency of Mafia groups and human rights abuses. The education of young ones and the highlighting of the positive roles and benefits of migration seem to be the best solution.”
Little wonder then Fr. Avelino Chico has taken the care for migrants and refugees as his Pastoral ministry. He has served as Assistant Director at the Loyola Centre d’esperance, Lome, Togo and later as National Director for Refugees at the National Episcopal Conference of Angola and Sao Tome, among others, before being called to Rome to serve in the Dicastery.
This Dicastery rose from the ashes of four Pontifical Councils, namely, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cor Unum, Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees and Healthcare Workers, following the reforms of the curia as initiated and completed by Pope Francis. No wonder, the Dicastery is headed by Canadian Michael Felix Cardinal Czerny, himself a Jesuit. The Dicastery is tasked with promoting the human person and his or her God-given dignity, human rights, health, justice and Peace, with issues on migration and humanitarian emergencies
In his first official address to the Cardinals after his election, Pope Leo XIV indicated to them that part of the reason he had chosen the name Leo was to set a marker for his pontificate as one that would address the social question like Leo XIII did.
“In our own day, the Church offers to everyone the treasury of her social teaching in response to another industrial revolution, and to developments in the field of artificial intelligence, that pose new challenges for the defence of human dignity, justice and labour,” said the Holy Father.
Clearly then this Dicastery, that champions the social ministry of the Church, would be at the center of the Pastoral ministry of this pontificate. Fr. Chico is head of office with Sr. Alexandra Smerilli FMA as Secretary, Fabio Cardinal Baggio as Cardinal Under Secretary and Nigerian priest from the diocese of Umuahia, Msgr. Anthony Onyemuche Ekp
o as Under Secretary.
