Pope Appoints Nun to Lead Vatican Department

Pope Francis on Monday appointed Sister Simona Brambilla to head the Vatican office that oversees religious orders for both men and women — including more than a quarter of the world’s priests — making her the first woman to reach the No. 1 position in an office in the Holy See.

The choice reflects Francis’ avowed aim to give women greater leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church. He has named several women to high-ranking positions, including the director of the Vatican museums. Sister Brambilla is the first prefect of a department of the Roman Curia, as the central administration of the church is known.

“This is very good news,” said Anne-Marie Pelletier, a theologian who has also written a book about women and the church. “It’s something completely new,” and shows what can be done in the church. “For me it’s a really important moment.”

But alongside Sister Brambilla, Francis named Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime as pro-prefect, or co-leader, of the department. It wasn’t immediately clear how the two would share responsibilities, and some critics saw the co-appointment as diluting Sister Brambilla’s effective role.

“For a woman to be appointed as prefect would be great news, if it weren’t for the fact that she has been flanked by someone, it’s like assigning a custodian who can control her,” said Lucetta Scaraffia, a church historian and feminist, who said that in this context, the appointment was “window dressing.”

Sister Brambilla will lead the department — its official title is Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life — that promotes and oversees religious orders of men and women, though the vast majority are for women. According to Vatican statistics published last year, some 128,500 priests — more than 25 percent of the world’s total — belonged to orders like the Jesuits or Franciscans as of 2022, as well as fewer than 50,000 brothers. The number of women in religious orders totaled 599,228 in 2022. The department also oversees many lay movements.