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Pope Leo XIV has appointed a longtime confrere and friend, Nigerian priest Edward Daniang Daleng, OSA, as vice regent of the Prefecture of the Papal Household, the second-highest position in the Vatican office that organizes audiences with the pope.
The prefecture also takes care of the preparations related to papal ceremonies, the spiritual exercises of the Holy Father, and gatherings of the College of Cardinals and the Roman Curia. Furthermore, it handles the necessary arrangements whenever the Holy Father leaves the Apostolic Palace to visit places within Rome or Italy.
Father Daniang has been a general councilor and, most recently, procurator general of the Order of St. Augustine — Pope Leo’s religious order. As procurator general, the priest was responsible for preparing and carrying out the order’s business with the Holy See.
Born on April 4, 1977, in Yitla’ar, Kwalla, Plateau state, in Nigeria, Daniang made his first profession in the Order of St. Augustine on Nov. 9, 2001, and his solemn vows on Nov. 13, 2004, at the age of 47.
He was ordained a priest on Sept. 10, 2005, and was awarded 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.”
Father 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, Daniang got to know Prevost even better.
He told Valentina Di Donato of EWTN News in August that he and Prevost have had many occasions to meet and speak over the ensuing decades.
“Something that struck me was his simplicity, his humility,” Father Daniang said. “That is how he was, how he is.”
Speaking to Vatican News after the election of Pope Leo XIV, Father Daniang also said that “Africa is in [Leo’s] heart” and that when he was prior general of the Augustinians, then-Father Prevost visited Nigeria at least 10 times.
“To understand how much my country mattered to him,” the priest continued, “just remember that after becoming prior general on his 46th birthday, Sept. 14, he was already with us in Nigeria by November.”
Valentina Di Donato, a producer in the Vatican Bureau of EWTN News, contributed to this report.
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Father Imoedemhe went on to extend the condolences of the bishop of Auchi to the families of the victims.
In interviews with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, Nigerian Catholic Church leaders shared their views on Christian persecution in the West African nation, expressing varied opinions on U.S. proposed legislation to change Nigeria’s designation to a country of particular concern (CPC).
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The curate of Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Nigeria’s Archdiocese of Abuja, Father Maximilian Okpong Peter, supported Cruz’s concern, describing it as ‘a reflection of Nigeria’s reality.’
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World
“Where are the kids protesting this?” Bill Maher said of the Christian genocide in Nigeria during the Sept. 26, 2025, edition of his HBO program “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Since July 2009, more than 19,000 Christian churches have been destroyed or looted, while hundreds of clergy, including Catholic priests, have been kidnapped or attacked.
