In a groundbreaking decision, Pope Francis has appointed a woman for the first time as prefect of a Vatican dicastery. Today, Jan. 6, he appointed the Italian missionary nun, Simona Brambilla, M.C., 59, as prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Sister Brambilla is a member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order.
In an equally unprecedented move, he has appointed a cardinal as the next in rank in that dicastery, naming the Spanish cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, S.D.B., 65, the former head of the Salesian order, as the pro-prefect, the number-two role. When Francis made Artime a cardinal on Sept. 30, 2023, many had expected that he would choose him as prefect of this dicastery.
The dicastery was founded by Pope Sixtus V in 1586 and has gone through various transformations since then. It oversees almost 700,000 consecrated women and men of the different Catholic religious orders and societies worldwide. The women have always been by far the most numerous. Vatican statistics for 2024 show that there are 559,228 women religious in the church today, and 128,559 priests belonging to religious orders, all of whom fall under this dicastery’s oversight and jurisdiction. (Diocesan priests fall under the Dicastery for the Clergy.)
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Ever since he became pope on March 13, 2013, Francis has sought to enhance the presence and role of women in the Vatican. As Vatican Media reports today, in the 10 years since then (2013-2023), the data shows that the percentage of women working in the Holy See and the Vatican City State has risen from 19.2 to 23.4 percent.
In the apostolic constitution on the reform of the Roman Curia, “Praedicate Evangelium,” which Pope Francis promulgated in March 2022, he separated the charism of Holy Orders from that of governance in the Roman Curia, making it possible for men and women who are not ordained priests or bishops to hold senior positions of responsibility and governance, including that of prefect in a Vatican dicastery. These positions had previously been reserved for clerics, usually cardinals or bishops.
Moving forward with his intention to appoint women to positions of responsibility in the Vatican, on July 8, 2019, Pope Francis appointed for the first time seven women members of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, including Sister Brambilla, who had been head of the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata since 2011. She continued as head of that institute until Oct. 7, 2023, when Francis appointed her as secretary of this dicastery.
Her appointment as secretary was not a first, because in 2021, he had already appointed another Italian nun, Alessandra Smerilli, F.M.A., to be secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Sister Brambilla had worked as a missionary sister in Mozambique after becoming a professional nurse and a member of the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Consolata.
Before today’s appointment, Pope Francis had already appointed two women to top positions in the Vatican City State. In 2016, he appointed Barbara Jatta as director of the Vatican Museums, a position that had always been held by laymen. In 2022, he appointed Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., as secretary general of the governorate of the city-state, a role that was usually assigned to a bishop. Many think Francis could also decide to name Sister Petrini to succeed Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, L.C, who will turn 80 in March, as President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of Vatican City State.
On April 1, 2023, Pope Francis appointed the English-born Sr. Helen Alford O.P. as president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Already today there are several women undersecretaries—the third-ranking position after prefect and secretary—in the Roman Curia. They include two lay women, Gabriella Gambino and Linda Ghisoni at the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, while at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Carmen Ros Nortes, N.S.C., is undersecretary.
Another lay woman, Emilce Cuda, is secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America; so too Nataša Govekar is the head of the theological-pastoral direction of the Dicastery for Communication; Cristiane Murray is the deputy director of the Holy See Press Office (prior to her, he had appointed Paloma Garcia Ovejero as the first woman to be deputy director of that office); and Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof is the deputy coordinator of the Council for the Economy. The general secretariat of the Synod also has a female undersecretary, the French nun Nathalie Becquart, X.M.C.J.
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