In Leo Vatican change, Children's Day commission dissolved

Behind the headlines, Leo is quietly revisiting Francis-era organizational policies

Pope Leo XIV dissolved this month the Pontifical Commission for World Children’s Day, another recent reversal of a measure passed by his predecessor in the recent past.

Fr. Enzo Fortunato, OFM. Conv. Credit: Conventual Franciscan Friars.

The move comes as the latest in the quiet rollback of several measures taken by Pope Francis in the last year of his pontificate, including as the reorganization of the Diocese of Rome, the creation of a donations commission, and reforms of the Vatican bank.

While the pope had made headlines confirming some elements and motifs of his predecessor’s pontificate, some new decisions could suggest the Leo is aiming for streamlined internal governance in the Vatican, and quietly making decisions to that effect.

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The pope’s Feb. 13 chirograph opens up by dissolving the Pontifical Commission for the World Children’s Day and repealing its statutes, relieving the president, vice president, and all members of the committee of their duties, of stating that “any acts and regulations adopted to date by the Pontifical Commission that cease to have legal effect in canon law and civil law are also repealed.”

The chirograph says that the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life is competent for any matters assigned to the committee and that it should “settle the commission’s outstanding accounts and submit a final liquidation balance sheet to the Secretariat for the Economy for approval and for any decision regarding the allocation of the remaining assets.”

The commission was established in Nov. 2024 after the celebration of the first Vatican-sponsored World Children’s Day in May that year.

Pope Francis established the Pontifical Commission for World Children’s Day to organize the event and to coordinate and promote the celebration with bishops’ conferences and local dioceses throughout the world. The commission was not initially placed under the authority of any Vatican dicastery.

While the commission has been abolished, the Vatican will continue to hold the World Children’s Day celebration, scheduled for Sept. 25 through 27 this year.

But after Pope Leo’s decision it will be organized by the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life instead of an independent committee.

The dissolution of the commission leaves controversial Fr. Enzo Fortunato, OFM Conv., the commission’s president, without a Vatican post.

Before he led the Children’s Day commission, Fortunato was in January 2024 appointed communications director of Saint Peter’s Basilica by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, OFM Conv. the archpriest of Saint Peter’s Basilica. Fortunato had earlier served as communications director of the Basilica of Assisi, where Gambetti served as General Custos between 2013 and 2020.

The position of communications director at Saint Peter’s Basilica didn’t exist before Gambetti appointed Fortunato to the job. But the priest wouldn’t last long in that position — he would resign in February 2025.

Speculation linked his resignation to the uproar after a security breach in which a man climbed the main altar of Saint Peter’s Basilica and destroyed six candlesticks. Fortunato was on vacation at the time and did not issue a public response in his capacity as press director.

Moreover, Fortunato brokered a video message from Pope Francis’ to the 2025 Sanremo Music Festival in 2025. The message proved controversial, after media outlets claimed the pope wasn’t informed that the video would be sent to the festival, and that it had instead been been produced as a thank-you message for artists who participated in the 2024 World Children’s Day. The situation was widely interpreted in Italy to suggest that the pope’s message was used for the music festival without his authorization, at Fortunato’s behest.

No replacement for Fortunato was appointed after his resignation at the helm of Saint Peter’s Basilica’s communications.

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The dissolution of the Children’s Day commission is the last of a series of reversals of decisions taken by Francis in the last years of pontificate.

On Feb. 1, the pope reversed a 2023 Francis policy that had ended free or subsidized housing for upcoming senior Vatican officials and cardinals.

In Dec. 2025, Pope Leo suppressed a controversial donations commission that was created by Francis on Feb. 11, 2025.

Leo’s chirograph suppressing the commission said that the move came as a recommendation of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy, which “devoted particular attention to studying this issue, reexamining it and consulting with experts in the field.”

The commission’s president was Msgr. Roberto Campisi, who had served as the Secretariat of State’s assessor for general affairs until Leo appointed him as the Holy See’s permanent observer to UNESCO, the Paris-based UN culture body on Sept. 27, 2025.

In Nov. 2025, Pope Leo abrogated a reorganization of the Diocese of Rome approved by Pope Francis in Oct. 2024.

Pope Leo’s motu proprio Immota manet ordered that five prefectures – groups of parishes – in the Diocese of Rome be united — again — as the central sector of the diocese, which had been abolished by Francis after a public divide between the priests of the sector and their vicar.

The Vatican also announced Oct. 6 that Pope Leo had revoked a 2022 rescript issued by Pope Francis that required all curial assets, accounts, and investments to be placed under APSA, which in turn was required to conduct its business through the Institute for Works of Religion, the Vatican’s sole for-profit commercial financial institution.