First woman in this position: Pope appoints nun as prefect

Vatikanstadt - The female form of a prefect was previously unknown in the Vatican. This is now changing: for the first time, the Pope is appointing a woman to head one of his dicasteries. Simona Brambilla should already be well versed in her new position.

Published on 06.01.2025 at 13:23 –

For the first time, a woman will head a Vatican authority. On Monday, Pope Francis appointed the religious Simona Brambilla as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. She previously held the second-highest post in the Dicastery as Secretary. The Pope appointed Cardinal Angel Fernandez as pro-prefect.

Brambilla is a member of the Consolata Missionary Sisters. She worked in Mozambique and completed a doctorate in psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 2008. From 2011 to May 2023, she was Superior General of her congregation. She has been a member of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which she now heads, since 2019.

Lay people in highest Curia offices made possible by Francis' reform

The dicasteries in the Vatican are comparable to ministries in a government. They are not headed by a minister, but by a prefect. The second rank, which is held by a secretary of state in a ministry, is called secretary in the Vatican. He is supported in his work by undersecretaries.

In his reform of the Curia, which was completed in 2022, Pope Francis opened up the highest Curia offices to lay people for the first time - both male and female. Until now, the only head of authority without an ecclesiastical ordination was the head of the Vatican Communications Dicastery, Paolo Ruffini. The Vatican Secretariat for the Economy is also headed by a layman, Maximino Caballero Ledo. (KNA)