BRIGHTON — Archbishop Seán P. O’Malley has announced a leadership change at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston. The archbishop has appointed Father Peter Uglietto, currently academic dean at Blessed John XXIII Seminary, to be the new rector, effective May 10. The current rector, Msgr. Francis Kelly, has accepted a position in Rome.

Father Uglietto, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston, was ordained in 1977. He holds a doctorate in moral theology from the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C. He has served in various parishes of the Archdiocese of Boston and in campus ministry at Regis College in Weston. He is a member of the archdiocesan presbyteral council.

The archbishop also announced that Msgr. Kelly, who has served at the seminary for 13 years and is the longest serving rector, has been chosen as the superior of the Casa Santa Maria in Rome, the residence for diocesan priests from the dioceses of the United States pursuing graduate studies in Rome. Msgr. Kelly, a priest of the Diocese of Worcester, served in Washington, D.C. as executive director of the Department of Religious Education of the National Catholic Education Association before coming to Blessed John XXIII Seminary.

Currently, 60 American priests are in residence at the Casa Santa Maria which is located in downtown Rome near the Pontifical Gregorian and Pontifical Angelicum universities, at which many of the priests matriculate. Blessed Pope Pius IX gave the building to the American Church in 1849 as a residence for American priests and seminarians.

Blessed John XXIII National Seminary, founded by Richard Cardinal Cushing in 1964, serves older candidates from throughout the United States and is observing this year the 40th anniversary of its founding. More than 500 priests have been ordained from the seminary in the past 40 years. In this school year, 58 men study at the seminary from 36 dioceses. Nine candidates for the Archdiocese of Boston are presently enrolled, and two of them are scheduled for ordination to the priesthood this May.