Pope Francis appoints first woman mayor and leaves a message to the nuns with a “vinegar face”

Simona Brambilla will direct the department responsible for all religious orders of the Catholic Church. Less gossip and more love, asks the supreme pontiff: “vinegar is unpleasant”, just like “vinegar-faced nuns”.

This Monday, Pope Francis appointed the first woman to head an important Vatican office, choosing the nun Simona Brambilla to direct the department responsible for all religious orders of the Catholic Church.

This is an important step in the religious leader’s goal of giving women more leadership roles, as until now there were only women as number 2 in some Vatican offices.

With the appointment of the Italian nun, a woman is appointed, for the first time, as head of a dicastery or congregation of the Curia of the Holy See, the central governing body of the Catholic Church.

The Vatican’s daily bulletin designates Brambilla as “prefect” while as co-leader, or “pro-prefect” a cardinal was named: Ángel Fernández Artime, a Salesian.

The AP news agency notes that a mayor must be able to celebrate Mass, a Catholic rite, and other sacramental functions that currently can only be performed by men. The department, officially known as the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, is one of the most important in the Vatican as it is responsible for all religious orders, from the Jesuits and Franciscans to the more recent and smaller movements.

Brambilla, 59 years old, is part of the religious order of the Consolata Missionaries and was, since last year, number 2 in the department of religious orders. The nun replaces the retired Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, 77 years old.

“Vinegar is unpleasant”

Addressing the Dominican nuns of the Union of Saint Catherine of Siena, Pope Francis strongly asked them to avoid gossip — a “poison” within religious communities.

“Gossip kills, gossip poisons. Please, no gossip among you”, he began by asking, joking: “asking this of a woman is heroic but, come on, let’s go ahead and no gossip”.

And the leader of the Catholic Church continued: “vinegar is unpleasant”, just like “vinegar-faced nuns”.

With that, Francisco came to implore the nuns to show “a serene, smiling face, which does not necessarily mean that things are going well, but that expresses hope”, said Roberta Vinerba, a Franciscan nun and theologian, cited by .

In addition to criticizing “sour” ways of being, Pope Francis also warned nuns about the dangers of getting involved with negative influences, particularly… the Devil. “The Lord spoke to everyone, except the Devil,” he recalled, adding: there is no dialogue with the Devil, you know? We don’t talk to the Devil.”

The approach of Francis, elected Pope in 2013, has sparked controversy on several occasions.

Earlier this year, he reportedly used a derogatory Italian term — “frociaggine” — to refer to homosexuals during a closed-door discussion, which led to an apology from the Vatican, despite the pontiff’s history of defending greater inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals.

A priest, who spoke on condition of anonymity to , described Pope Francis as “harsh-spoken” and noted that his frank manner of expression could be intensifying with age.