Pope Francis appoints women to bishops’ advisory committee.
Pope Francis has for the first time appointed three women to serve as members of the Vatican committee that vets bishop nominations.
The Italian, Raffaella Petrini, the French, Yvonne Reungoat, and the laywoman, Maria Lia Zervino, will join the previously all-male office.
The appointments are the latest in a series of important moves to allow women a greater say in the governance of the Catholic Church.
The dicastery oversees the work of most of the church’s 5,300 bishops, who lead dioceses around the world. Its members – including cardinals, bishops and now women – meet periodically to evaluate new bishops who are proposed by Vatican ambassadors.
The Pope still has the final say despite the consultation and vetting process.
Petrini was the first woman to be appointed secretary general of the Vatican City State, responsible for the museums and other administrative parts of the territory.
Sister Reungoat previously served as superior general of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, a religious order also known as the Salesian Sisters.
Maria Lia Zervino, meanwhile, is president of an umbrella group of Catholic women, the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.
Church doctrine still reserves the priesthood for men, and women have often complained that they have a secondary status in the clerical hierarchy of the Holy See.
Most of the work of the Vatican in running schools, hospitals, while conveying the faith is done by women.
