The Vatican under Francis: Promoting women to leadership positions

Last week, Pope Francis appointed an Italian nun as the first woman to head a major Vatican office. Sr Simona Brambilla is the first female prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders.

Sr Brambilla is now responsible for the 600,000 nuns worldwide and 129,000 priests who belong to religious orders. This is not the first time the nun has been appointed to a high position in the Vatican, in 2023 she was appointed as Secretary of the same Dicastery.

Appointed

She was only the second woman in history to be appointed Secretary of a Vatican Dicastery, following Sr Alessandra Smerilli, who in 2021 became the Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. In the same year, Sr Nathalie Becquart became the undersecretary of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops.

According to the Vatican News, since the beginning of Pope Francis’ pontificate in 2013 the presence of women in the Vatican has increased. Data show that between 2013 and 2023, in both the Holy See and Vatican City the percentage of women rose from 19.2% to 23.4%.

In 2020, Francesca Di Giovanni became the first woman to hold a high-ranking post in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State”

One of the two female appointments the Pope made for leadership positions in the Vatican City State, Barbara Jatta became in 2017 the Director of the Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage, which has staff of some 780 people, nearing 1,000 if including collaborators. Ms Jatta was the Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums from 2016 before being named ‘Director’.

In 2019, Cristiane Murray, who had been working for the Vatican Radio since 1995, was appointed Deputy Director of the Holy See Press Office. And in 2020, Francesca Di Giovanni became the first woman to hold a high-ranking post in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State with the role of Under-Secretary for the Multilateral Sector of the Section for Relations with States and International Organisations.

Lay experts

In 2020, the Pontiff appointed six women as ‘lay experts’ for the 15-member Vatican Council for the Economy, which until that moment was all male. The women are: Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof, Eva Castillo Sanz, Leslie Jane Ferrar, Marija Kolak, María Concepción Osákar Garaicoechea and Ruth Maria Kelly.

Pope Francis appointed María Lía Zervino and Simona Brambilla as part of the 17 members of the XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod”

In 2022, Pope Francis named three women as members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops. That was the first time in history women were members of the Vatican department responsible for the world’s episcopal appointments.

María Lía Zervino was the President General of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organisations (WUCWO) from 2018 to 2023. Sr Raffaela Petrini, who in 2022 became the first women to serve as Secretary General of the Governorate, a role that was usually held by a bishop. And Sr Yvonne Reungoat, one of the first women to be appointed as a member of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life in 2019.

In August 2024, Sr Inês Paulo Albino was appointed Secretary-general of the Pontifical Society for Missionary Childhood and in December, Pope Francis appointed María Lía Zervino and Simona Brambilla as part of the 17 members of the XVI Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod.

Positions

There are currently several women working in high positions in the Vatican. Some of them are Gabriella Gambino and Lina Ghisoni who are Undersecretaries at the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, and Sr Carmen Ros Nortes of the Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation who serves as Undersecretary at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Emilce Cuda is the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Nataša Govekar heads the theological-pastoral department of the Dicastery for Communication (our parent organisation) and Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchof is Deputy Coordinator of the Council for the Economy.

The growth in the number of women composing the workforce in the Vatican is a direct result of the Pope’s commitment to gender equality and women’s inclusion in decision-making roles.