Pope Francis
In Biden, the media finally has a religious president to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day with the warning against extremism. Pope will miss three upcoming events due to sciatica leg pain MORE this weekend he has appointed two women to positions that until now were held only by men.
Reuters reports that the pope on Saturday appointed Nathalie Becquart, 52, as undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. Becquart, a French member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, will now be part of the department that manages the major meetings between world bishops that take place every few years.
Becquart’s new position will give him the power to vote in exclusively male assemblies, Reuters notes. Although women have observed and consulted at past synods, only male representatives were allowed to vote in advance on documents sent to the pope.
“It simply came to our notice then. We will see what other measures could be taken in the future, ”he told the synod’s secretary general, Cardinal Mario Grech, on the Vatican’s official news site.
Pope Francis also on Friday appointed Catia Summaria, an Italian magistrate, to be the first woman to promote justice at the Vatican’s court of appeals, Reuters added.
As the news service points out, the pope has previously appointed women to several other senior positions. Last year, she reportedly appointed six women to senior positions in overseeing the Vatican’s finances and appointed women as deputy foreign minister, director of the Vatican Museums and deputy director of the Vatican Press Office. .
Francis has confirmed the church’s stance on the ban on female priests, Reuters notes, although it has set up commissions to examine the history of female deacons in the early history of the Catholic Church.