Pope Leo XIV recently appointed Father Daniel Groody, C.S.C. as a member of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. Fr. Groody, a theology and global affairs professor, serves as Vice President and Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Education at Notre Dame. He is also a fellow and trustee of the university.
Members of the Dicastery of the Roman Curia are chosen from cardinals, bishops, religious, and lay men and women around the world. During their five-year term, the members “provide support for exploring and addressing specific issues within the purview of the individual Dicasteries,” according to the Vatican’s news release.
In addition to Fr. Groody, the pope appointed three other Americans to the Dicastery, including Hope Border Institute Executive Director Dylan Corbett; St. John’s University theology professor Meghan J. Clark; and Léocadie Wabo Lushombo, i.t., of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University.
Recognized as an international expert on immigration and refugee ethics, Fr. Groody’s research focuses on the intersection of migration and theology, studying faith’s role in addressing challenges of displacement and immigration. His most recent book, “A Theology of Migration: The Bodies of Refugees and the Body of Christ,” included an introduction by Pope Francis and received first-place recognition from the Catholic Press Association.
As associate provost for undergraduate education, Groody oversees initiatives on curriculum development, academic integrity, advising, academic support, and scholarly engagement. Working closely with the Provost’s office, he supervises, among other things, the Advisory Committee on the Academic Code and Policy, the Moreau First Year Experience course, and the Core Curriculum Committee. He also chairs the University Committee on the Honor Code and the Valedictorian and Salutatorian Selection Committee.
In 2025, Pope Francis appointed Fr. Groody to serve on the General Council of the Laudato Si’ Higher Education Center in Castel Gandolfo.
The Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development was created in 2016 by Pope Francis with the unification of four Pontifical Councils. According to its website, the Dicastery works to “express the Church’s solicitude in the fields of justice, peace, the safeguarding of all of Creation, as well as in those that concern health and works of charity.”
The phrase “integral human development” was first widely circulated by Pope Paul VI in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio, in which he stressed the importance of a holistic understanding of development, one moving beyond mere economic gain.
University President Fr. Robert A. Dowd, C.S.C. described the appointment in the Notre Dame news release as a “testament to Father Groody’s deep commitment to leadership in service of the most vulnerable among us,” and an “affirmation of Notre Dame’s ongoing contributions to Catholic social thought, to integral ecology and to forming leaders dedicated to the common good.”
Lucy Spence is a junior from McLean, Virginia majoring in the Program of Liberal Studies and piano performance, with a minor in philosophy. She can be reached at lspence@nd.edu.