On June 20, 2025, the Knights of Columbus Board of Directors appointed Anthony R. Picarello Jr. as supreme advocate. He succeeds John A. Marrella, who served as supreme advocate since 2009 and was appointed supreme secretary in 2024.
Picarello has served as the executive director of the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, D.C., since August 2023, and continues to have executive oversight over the shrine.
For more than 15 years, Picarello was associate general secretary and general counsel for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He previously worked in various leadership roles at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for which he spent seven years litigating First Amendment cases. A graduate of Harvard University, University of Chicago Divinity School, and the University of Virginia Law School, he also spent three years as a litigation associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, following a federal district court clerkship.
A dedicated Knight of Columbus, Supreme Advocate Anthony Picarello is a member of Cathedral Council 6790 in Arlington, Virginia.