Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to lead a major Vatican office, appointing Sister Simona Brambilla, an Italian nun, prefect of the department responsible for all religious orders of the Catholic Church.
The appointment is a major step toward Francis’ goal of giving women greater leadership roles in the church’s governance. While women have been named to No. 2 positions in some Vatican offices, no woman has ever been named prefect of the Dicastery or Congregation of the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.
The historic nature of Brambilla’s appointment was confirmed by Vatican media, which titled its report “Sister Simona Brambilla is the first female prefect in the Vatican.”
This office is one of the most important in the Vatican. Officially known as the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, it is responsible for every religious order from the Jesuits and Franciscans to smaller new movements.
In a sign of the novelty of the appointment and the theological implications involved, Francis simultaneously named a co-leader, or “pro-prefect”, as a Cardinal: Ángel Fernández Artim, a Salesian.
But the appointment announced in the Vatican’s daily bulletin lists Brambilla first as “prefect” and Fernandez second as his co-leader, which is theologically required because the prefect has the authority to celebrate Mass and other sacred functions. Must be able to do things that can only be done at present. Done by men.
Brambilla, 59, is a member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order and had been working as the No. 2 in the religious order’s department since last year. He takes over from 77-year-old retired Cardinal João Braz de Aviz.
Francis made Brambilla’s appointment possible with a 2022 reform of the Holy See’s founding constitution, which allowed laypeople, including women, to lead a department and become prefects.
Brambilla, a nurse, worked as a missionary in Mozambique and led its Consolata order from 2011-2023, when Francis made her secretary of the religious orders’ department.
Her appointment is the latest step by Francis to show by example how women can take on leadership roles within the Catholic hierarchy, even if they are not allowed to be ordained as priests.
Catholic women do much of the Church’s work in schools, hospitals, and in transmitting the faith to future generations. But they have long complained of second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men.
Francis has maintained a ban on female priests and lowered expectations that women can be ordained as deacons.
But during his papacy there has been a significant increase in the percentage of women working in the Vatican, including in leadership positions, from 19.3% in 2013 to 23.4% today, according to data reported by Vatican News. Is. The percentage of women in the Curia alone is 26%.
Women in leadership positions include Sister Raffaella Petrini, the first female Secretary General of Vatican City State, who is responsible for the territory’s health care system, police force, and the main source of revenue, the Vatican Museums, which is headed by a lay woman. Is. , Barbara Jatta.
Another nun, Sister Alessandra Smarilli, is No. 2 in the Vatican development office, while several women, including Sister Nathalie Becquart, a French nun, have been appointed to undersecretary positions in the Synod of Bishops’ office.