Pope Francis names first woman to run Vatican office

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(NewsNation) — Pope Francis has named an Italian nun to run the Vatican department responsible for all religious orders in the Catholic Church.

Sister Simona Brambilla, 60, of Italy, will be prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The office is in charge of every religious order, from the Jesuits to the Franciscans. According to the Vatican, she served as secretary of the same office until now and before that was a missionary in Mozambique. Before she joined the Consolata Missionary Sisters Institute, Brambilla was a nurse.

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Pope Francis has made an effort to give women more leadership roles in the church’s governance. Until now, he had never appointed a woman as the head of any Vatican office.

But, alongside Brambilla, Francis has also appointed a co-leader or “pro-prefect” to the department: Cardinal Angel Fernandez Artime, a Salesian.

One challenge Brambilla faces is the dwindling number of nuns worldwide. According to the Vatican, in 2010, there were 750,000 nuns worldwide. As of 2024, that number is 600,000.

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