ROME — Pope Francis has announced his intention to add two women to the Vatican department that vets candidates for appointment as bishops.
The pope said that “two women will be appointed for the first time in the committee to elect bishops in the Congregation for Bishops,” in comments to Reuters published this week. “This way, things are opening up a bit.”
The revelation is important because it represents the first time women will be formally included in the process for selecting the world’s bishops, even though the final say in the appointment of prelates is always left to the pope himself.
The normal procedure for the naming of bishops involves the presentation of possible candidates by the papal nuncio, who acts as the pope’s ambassador in a given country. The members of the Congregation of Bishops then analyze and discuss the appointment and take a vote regarding whom to propose to the pontiff, who makes the final decision.
Last year Francis appointed Sister Raffaella Petrini as deputy governor of the Vatican City State, making her the first woman to hold the position and the highest-ranking woman in the Vatican. Sister Raffaella was also named interim international director of the Patrons of the Arts of the Vatican Museums.
In 2020, the pope named Francesca di Giovanni as undersecretary for the multilateral sector in the Vatican Secretariat of State’s office for Relations with States and International Organizations, another first.
Several other women hold high-level positions in the Vatican, including Barbara Jatta, the first female director of the Vatican Museums; Sister Nathalie Becquart, under-secretary of the Synod of Bishops; Nataša Govekar, director of the theological-pastoral office of the Vatican Dicastery for Communication; Cristiane Murray, deputy director of the Holy See Press Office; and Sister Alessandra Smerilli, undersecretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.