Pope Francis on Wednesday named three women to the Dicastery for Bishops, the first time women have been appointed to the Dicastery responsible for identifying future bishops globally.
The Holy See Press Office published the Pope’s latest appointments to the Dicastery in a statement on Wednesday.
The female members are Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., Secretary General of the Governorate of the Vatican City State; Sister Yvonne Reungoat, F.M.A, former Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians; and, Dr. Maria Lia Zervino, President of the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations.
The nomination of Dr. Zervino also marks the first appointment ever of a laywoman to the Vatican Dicastery.
Described as a ”close friend of the Pope,” she wrote an open letter to Francis in 2021, praising him “for being the Francis of the 21st century,” but saying that “not enough progress has been made in taking advantage of the wealth of women who make up a large part of the People of God.”
She wrote:
“I dream of a Church that has suitable women as judges in all the courts in which matrimonial cases are processed, in the formation teams of each seminary, and for exercising ministries such as listening, spiritual direction, pastoral health care, care for the planet, defense of human rights, etc., for which, by our nature, women are equally or sometimes better prepared than men. Not only consecrated women, but how many lay women in all regions of the globe are ready to serve!”
“And I dream that, during your pontificate, you will inaugurate, together with the Synods of Bishops, a different synod: the synod of the People of God, with proportional representation of the clergy, consecrated men and women, and lay men and women.”
“We will no longer be happy just because a woman votes for the first time but because many prepared lay women, in communion with all the other members of such synod, will have given their contribution and their vote that will add to the conclusions that will be placed in your hands.”
“Probably, Holy Father, you already have this ‘card in your deck’ to put synodality into practice and wait for the right moment to play it,” Zervino said at the time.

The bishop of Tilarán-Liberia in Costa Rica, Eugenio Salazar Mora, on July 6 knelt as he greeted the superior of the Missionaries of Charity, who were expelled from Nicaragua by the government of President Daniel Ortega.
The sisters of the order founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta were welcomed to Costa Rica at a parish in the town of Cañas.
A video posted by the bishop on Facebook shows him greeting the nuns one by one, who in turn kiss his episcopal ring. When he came to the superior, Salazar knelt down and it was he who kissed the sister’s hand.
The Diocese of Tilarán-Liberia explained that “the sign of reverence that [the bishop] makes toward the mother provincial is a sign of being at her disposal and of service toward this community.” ‘In receiving you we have received Jesus Christ.’
In another video, posted July 7, the bishop said he didn’t know the reasons for the expulsion of the nuns, who “remain silent be-cause they are religious, because of their spirituality of not seeking recognition, not getting involved in controversies, and they offer their pain for the Costa Rican people.”
“They have had difficult ti-mes, fearful for their personal safety, knowing that they are of several different nationalities and some of them are older. They were very worried until they arrived on Costa Rican territory,” the prelate continued.
“If it had been up to them, they would stay in Nicaragua; they love Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan people, especially those most in need,” the bishop noted.

In yet another wide-ranging interview, Pope Francis said Monday that he doesn’t plan to step down anytime soon, though he prays for the strength to do so when the time is right.
If the day comes when he does resign, the pontiff said he would prefer to be considered the “Bishop emeritus of Rome rather than pope emeritus” and to dedicate his time to the confession of the faithful, the practice of charity, and visiting the sick in some Italian parish.
“If I survive after resignation, I would like to do one thing: confess and go to see the sick,” he said.
On other fronts, the pope said pro-choice Catholic politicians should “talk to their pastor” about their “incoherence” with church teaching, and he repeated a familiar warning about the risks of a third world war.
Francis also answered – and, to some extent, dodged – questions about Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, the clerical sexual abuse scandals, abortion, his resignation, and why he doesn’t go back to his home country, Argentina.
The Pope’s remarks came in a July 11 interview with Mexican journalists Valentina Alazraki and Maria Antonieta Collins, published on the Vix streaming channel of Noticias Univision 24/7.
On the subject of war, Francis noted he changed the Catechism of the Catholic Church to say that both the use and possession of nuclear weapons is immoral, because an accident could lead to the killing of half of humanity: “We cannot play with death in our hands like that. We were playing with death.”