(Vatican City) Pope Francis on Thursday appointed the first woman to head the Vatican Governorate, Franciscan Sister Raffaella Petrini, continuing her drive to achieve greater gender equality in the Church.
As secretary general of the governorate, the 52-year-old Italian nun will be responsible for overseeing administrative operations, including the Vatican Museums, the post office and the police. She thus becomes the most senior woman in the smallest state in the world.
According to the online newspaper National Catholic Reporter, this role is traditionally occupied by a bishop.
Francis, 84, has said on several occasions that he wants women to play a greater role in the Catholic Church.
In January, he amended the law to allow them to serve as readers in liturgies, altar servers and communion distributors, without saying, however, that this change could one day open the door to women priests.
In February, he appointed a woman as undersecretary of the synod of bishops, the first to hold the voting position in a body that studies major doctrinal issues.
In 2016, the Pope created a commission to study the history of women deacons during the early years of the Catholic Church, in a process that could potentially have paved the way for women to assume this role today. ‘hui, in the hope of the reformers.
But the findings of that commission fell short of expectations and the Pope appointed another one last year to look into the matter.