Pope appoints first-ever woman to helm major Vatican office

Vatican City: In a first, the Vatican appointed a woman, an Italian nun, to head the department that is responsible for all Catholic Church’s religious orders, The Indian Express reported.

The appointment by Pope Francis marked a historic step towards giving more leadership roles to women in governing the church. It is the first in the church’s history to appoint a woman as the prefect of a dicastery or congregation of the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.

Sister Simona Brambilla was made the first woman prefect in the Vatican to head the dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The department is responsible for every religious order, from the Jesuits and Franciscans to the Mercy nuns and smaller newer movements.

Sister Brambillia will be responsible for the world’s 600,000 Catholic nuns and 1,29,000 Catholic priests who belong to religious orders.

Senior professor of theology and religious education at Boston College Thomas Groome said that the post should have been held by a woman.

“Long ago it should have been, but thank God,” TIE quoted Groome, who has been calling for the ordination of women priests for long.

He said that it is a small step along the way, but symbolically, it shows an openness and a new horizon or possibility. He added that theologically, nothing would now prevent the Pope from naming the sister a cardinal since cardinals technically do not have to be ordained priests.

The 59-year-old Sister Brambilla is a member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order and has served as the No. 2 in the religious orders department since 2023. She is taking over the office from the retiring Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, who is 77 years old.

However, Pope Francis has also appointed a co-leader or “pro-prefect” to helm the department along with Brambilla.