ROME – Pope Francis has appointed Sister Simona Brambilla as head of the department responsible for the consecrated life of the Church, making her the first woman to head a major Vatican office.
On Monday, when the Church celebrated Epiphany, when the three wise men came to worship the newborn Christ child, the Pope appointed The 59-year-old Italian is the director of the Society of Consecrated and Apostolic Life.
Sister Brambilla, a former senior general of the Missionaries of the Consolata, will run this department with the assistance of Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime as Pro-Secretary. As an ordained prelate, Mr. Fernández Artime will celebrate Mass and perform other sacramental ceremonies as needed.
The Pope has repeatedly expressed a desire to increase the visibility of women in leadership roles, allowing laity, including women, to lead Vatican departments, roles previously reserved for cardinals and archbishops. The reform was enacted in 2022.
In 2019, he appointed seven women to the Vatican's Secretariat for Consecrated and Religious Life. Sister Brambilla was then named. secretary He has now been promoted to governor.
In 2016, the Pope appointed Barbara Jatta as director of the Vatican Museums, and in 2022 appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini to the post of administrator, a position previously held by bishops.
Francis has repeatedly upheld Catholic teaching that Christ intentionally instituted a male priesthood, but said that the overemphasis on ordination represents a form of “clericalism” and that the laity and consecrated They argued that it underestimated the essential contributions of men and women.
In a 2023 interview, the Pope reiterated that “holy orders are reserved for men,” reaffirming Catholicism's eternal teaching.
Regarding the possibility of female deacons, Francis said this would be difficult because the deaconship is “the first degree of priesthood in the Catholic Church, then the priesthood, and finally the episcopacy.”
“If we only think about the priestly ministry, or the path of service, I think we would undermine the essence of the Church,” he said, emphasizing that women are the mirror of the Church, the bride of Jesus.
“The fact that a woman does not have access to pastoral life is not a deprivation, because her position is far more important,” he said.
