On 27 June 2015, Pope Francis named him the Prefect of the newly established Secretariat for Communications. He was expected to give greater prominence to new media and decrease the significance of the Vatican's radio and print operations. He predicted the reorganization of existing departments would be "tear-inducing" for some of the 650 employees affected as duplicate processes were eliminated and greater coordination introduced. He also encountered institutional rivalries both within his departments and in other parts of the Roman Curia. In mid-March 2018, Viganò inaccurately represented a letter authored by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and provided journalists with a photograph later shown to be altered. After extensive media discussion of these misrepresentations, he resigned as prefect on 21 March 2018 and Pope Francis named him assessor of the Secretariat, its third-highest post.
