Pope Francis established the Secretariat for Communication in June 2015,[1][2] with Monsignor Dario Edoardo Viganò, former director of the Vatican Television Center, as its first prefect.

[3] Viganò resigned on 21 March 2018, "a week after his mishandling of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI provoked a global outcry".

[4] On 23 June 2018, the secretariat was renamed Dicastery for Communication,[5] and on 5 July 2018, Pope Francis appointed award-winning lay journalist Paolo Ruffini as prefect.

[6] Ruffini also chairs the Commission for Information of the Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

[7] Monsignor Lucio Adrian Ruiz, former head of the Vatican Internet Service, is secretary of the Dicastery and Paul Nusiner, former General Manager of Avvenire, is director general.