Pope Francis today appointed three women, two nuns and one laywoman, who will be the first to have a voice in such an important task for the Church as the appointment of bishops. Francis had already revealed in a recent interview that he planned to include women as members of the Dicastery (ministry) for Bishops, and this Wednesday the Vatican has made their names public: Sister Raffaella Petrini, current deputy governor of Vatican City, the French nun Yvonne Reungoat, former superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, and María Lia Zervino, president of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.
“I am open to giving women an opportunity,” the Pope told the Reuters agency, asked about the new Apostolic Constitution –already in force– that allows any baptized faithful, both men and women, to lead the dicasteries (Vatican ministries). ). “Now, in the Congregation of Bishops, in the commission to elect bishops, there will be women for the first time. It kind of opens up this way,” he explained.
In the process of electing new bishops, the Pope always has the last word. Although it is something that can vary according to each country, the most common is that when a vacancy needs to be filled, it is the nuncio (the Vatican ambassador) who asks the bishops and the superiors of the religious orders for a list of possible suitable candidates to lead. a diocese.
When he has it, the nuncio sends it to the Vatican, but not before making some calls to check the suitability of the chosen ones. That is when the Dicastery for Bishops comes into play, which meets twice a month at the Holy See to select the finalists Francis must choose from. Until now it was made up of 23 men, all bishops and cardinals. Never had a woman had a say in this commission.
In recent years, and in the face of the clamor of a large sector of the Church for a greater weight of women in positions with jurisdiction, Bergoglio has been taking small steps by appointing women to positions normally reserved for bishops, but has not yet elected none to be at the head of a dicastery. For example, in November 2021 he chose the Franciscan nun Raffaella Petrini as secretary general of the Vatican City State Governorate, number two of this organization, one of those chosen for the commission.
Last year he also appointed the nun Alessandra Smerilli, interim secretary of the dicastery for the Service of Integral Human Development. The French religious Nathalie Becquart is the undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. The Spanish nun Carmen Ros Norte is Undersecretary of the Department for Religious, while the laywoman Barbara Jatta is the first female director of the Vatican Museums.
Asked in the interview why other Vatican departments could be led by lay people, men or women, Francis suggested they could include the Department for Education and Culture and the Apostolic Library, now headed by religious men. Previously, he had also mentioned Integral Human Development or Laity, Family and Life. In fact, a few weeks ago Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, joked that with the promulgation of the new Constitution on the Curia he could be the last cleric to head that department.
The Argentine pope, who has definitively closed the door for women to be ordained priests, has also modified canon law so that Catholic women can read the word of God during masses, help at the altar and distribute communion, something that It had already been happening in many countries for years, but it was not institutionalized.
