Pope Francis appointed this Monday (6) the first woman to head a Vatican dicastery (similar to a ministry), Sister Simona Bramblia. The decision marks an important step for the legacy of the religious man, who committed to expanding female leadership in the Catholic Church during his pontificate.
Women have been able to lead dicasteries since 2022. But they had only held secondary or interim positions in them until now, without ever assuming their leadership.
These were the cases of Raffaella Petrini, number two in the Vatican City government; Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums; Alessandra Smerilli, interim secretary of the Vatican’s development office; and Nathalie Becquart, co-undersecretary of the office of the Synod of Bishops.
Furthermore, despite the theoretical change, in practice not every department is accessible to women. Only men can be priests in Catholicism; The Dicastery for Bishops and the Dicastery for Clergy necessarily have male heads, therefore.
This is not the case with the department that Bramblia takes over, the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which oversees religious orders. Even so, according to the Associated Press, a man, Ángel Fernández Artime, was appointed as his deputy, or co-leader. The duties of the person responsible for the portfolio include celebrating masses and carrying out other functions linked to the sacraments, which can only be performed by men, after all.
Brambilla, 59, was born in Monza, Italy, and graduated in nursing before entering religious life in 1988. She was a missionary in Mozambique and was elected director of the congregation to which she belongs, the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of Consolata, in 2011 and in 2017. She was already working in the department that she will lead since 2019.
Francis preaches the opening of the Church to groups that are somehow on its margins, which includes women. During his pontificate, there was an increase in the percentage of female employees in the Vatican and the Holy See, from 19.3% in 2013 to 23.4% in 2023, show data reproduced by the Vatican News portal.
Critics claim that the transformations are not enough, however, and point out that whether at the top of the Church or in local parishes, women, generally consecrated sisters, are commonly relegated to the role of maids for priests, bishops and cardinals, almost always without no rights recognized.
