VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his first appointment of a top-level official of the Roman Curia, Pope Leo XIV named Sister Tiziana Merletti, a canon lawyer, to be secretary of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Sister Merletti, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, succeeds Consolata Missionary Sister Simona Brambilla, whom Pope Francis appointed prefect of the dicastery in January. The women’s International Union of Superiors General (UISG, in Italian) thanked Pope Leo and congratulated Sister Merletti on her appointment, which the Vatican announced May 22. In 1992 she earned her doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. At the time of her appointment, she was teaching canon law at the Pontifical Antonianum University in Rome and serving as a canon law expert with the UISG.