ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders.
The appointment marks a major step in Pope Francis’ aim to give women more leadership roles in governing the church. While women have been named to number two spots in some Vatican offices, never before has a woman been named prefect of a dicastery or congregation of the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.
The historic nature of Brambilla’s appointment was confirmed by Vatican Media, which headlined its report: “Sister Simona Brambilla is the first woman prefect in the Vatican.”
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The office is one of the most important in the Vatican. Known officially as the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, it is responsible for every religious order, from the Jesuits and Franciscans to smaller newer movements.
In an indication of the novelty of the appointment and the theological implications involved, the pope simultaneously named as a co-leader, or pro-prefect, a cardinal, Ángel Fernández Artime, a Salesian.
But the appointment, announced in the Vatican daily bulletin, lists Brambilla first as prefect and Fernández second as her co-leader, which theologically is necessary since the prefect must be able to celebrate Mass and perform other sacramental functions that currently can only be done by men.
Brambilla, 59, is a member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order and had served as the number two in the religious orders department since last year. She takes over from the retiring Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, 77.
Pope Francis made Brambilla’s appointment possible with his 2022 reform of the Holy See’s founding constitution, which allowed lay people, including women to head a dicastery and become prefects.
Brambilla, a nurse, worked as a missionary in Mozambique and led her Consolata order as superior from 2011-2023, when Francis made her secretary of the religious orders department.
Her appointment is the latest move by the pope to show by example, how women can take leadership roles within the Catholic hierarchy, albeit without allowing them to be ordained as priests.
