Vatican City - Pope Leo XIV has bestowed upon Rev. Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga, his personal secretary, the title of Chaplain of His Holiness, formally placing him within the Papal Household as established by the motu proprio Pontificalis Domus of 28 March 1968.
This honor, one of the three categories of ecclesiastical distinctions retained by the reform of Saint Paul VI, confirms the priest’s full belonging to the direct service of the Roman Pontiff.
A biblical scholar serving the Pope
Mons. Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga is a peruvian priest and biblical scholar, born in Chiclayo on 24 September 1989. After attending the schools of his hometown - the Colegio Nacional Juan Pablo Vizcardo y Guzmán and the Colegio de San José, where he graduated in 2005 - he entered the Seminario Mayor Santo Toribio de Mogrovejo, completing his formation while undertaking pastoral responsibilities at the Iglesia Santa María Catedral de Chiclayo. He was ordained a priest on 22 November 2014.
In 2017 he moved to Rome for advanced studies in Sacred Scripture at the Pontifical Biblical Institute, where he earned his licentiate. He had already been called to serve as secretary to Bishop Robert Francis Prevost, then bishop of Chiclayo. When Prevost was appointed Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops by Pope Francis, Rimaycuna followed him to Rome. Upon Prevost’s election to the See of Peter as Leo XIV on 8 May 2025, Father Rimaycuna Inga was confirmed as the Pope’s first personal secretary - a sign of the Holy Father’s steady esteem for his loyalty and reliability. The title of Chaplain of His Holiness, while formal in nature, constitutes yet another expression of the Pope’s trust in one of his closest collaborators.
What it Means to be a “Chaplain of his Holiness”?
To understand the precise significance of this title, one must refer to the motu proprio Pontificalis Domus, promulgated by Saint Paul VI on 28 March 1968. The document radically reformed the old structures of the Papal Court, restoring to them a functional rather than merely ceremonial role.
It distinguishes two principal bodies:
the Papal Chapel, linked to liturgical celebrations;
the Papal Household, responsible for the Pope’s direct service in his spiritual duties and - within today’s limits - his civil functions.
It is within this latter body that the Chaplains of His Holiness are situated, one of the three remaining categories of ecclesiastical honorary titles (together with the Apostolic Protonotaries and the Prelates of Honor). The motu proprio states that Chaplains belong to the ecclesiastical section of the Papal Household and are chosen from those who assist the Pope most directly in his daily ministry. It is therefore a title that, while honorific, corresponds to a concrete and effective service.
In the introduction to the decree, Paul VI clearly expressed the aim of the reform: to eliminate what had become merely nominal or ornamental, and instead preserve what responds to a real need in the mission of the Roman Pontiff. The Pope, he wrote, requires “faithful, suitable and capable persons […] able to meet the demands of liturgical service as well as those of temporal administration.” The title conferred on Monsignor Rimaycuna Inga fits precisely within this vision.
A choice consistent with the 1968 Motu Proprio
Granting the title Chaplain of His Holiness to the Pope’s personal secretary is fully consistent with the vision articulated by Saint Paul VI: the Papal Household must be composed of figures genuinely engaged in the Pope’s daily service, not holders of formal or inherited positions. Rimaycuna Inga, already entrusted with the delicate coordination of the papal agenda, relations with the Secretariat of State, confidential communications, and the private life of the Pope, fulfills exactly the functions envisaged by the motu proprio. His appointment introduces no nobiliary or courtly prerogative - all abolished in 1968 - but acknowledges an actual service and reaffirms a core principle of the reform: dignity derives from mission, not from title.
A new step in strengthening the Papal Household under Leo XIV
The act of Leo XIV is part of a broader effort to streamline the roles surrounding and assisting him. Unlike in past eras, the Papal Household is no longer a constellation of symbolic offices, but an operational body accompanying the Pope in his spiritual mission and in the complexity of ecclesial and international relations.
The appointment of Mons. Edgard Iván Rimaycuna Inga as Chaplain of His Holiness is therefore both an institutional recognition and a sign of the Pope’s personal trust in a priest who has served at his side for years, sharing the daily responsibilities - including the most delicate and confidential - of the Petrine ministry.
f.G.A.
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