Catholics in India have applauded Pope Francis for nominating three women to the Vatican office that vets bishop appointments.
“Pope Francis is no doubt a visionary, who is treading gently to create space for women to become actively engaged in the life and mission of the Church,” Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes, national convener of the Forum of Religious for Justice and Peace, told Matters India July 14, a day after Pope named the women to the Dicastery for Bishops.
The Vatican office oversees the work of most of the Church’s 5,300 bishops, who run dioceses around the world.
The new members are Sister Raffaella Petrini, a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist who already holds a high-ranking Vatican position as the secretary general of the Vatican City State, which runs the Vatican Museums and other administrative parts of the territory.
Also named was Sister Yvonne Reungoat, former superior general of the Daughters of Mary the Helper, also known as the Salesian Sisters. The lay woman is Maria Lia Zervino, president of a Catholic women’s umbrella group, the World Union of Female Catholic Organizations (WUCWO).
Sister Fernandes says the Pope is following Jesus, who was sensitive to women entrusted the Church to them beginning with Mother Mary. The Pope “is breaking new paths much to the opposition from within. Synodality is being unfolded, by inclusiveness by enabling women to take their rightful place,” she says.
Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian, says by naming the three women Pope Francis is apparently breaking the gendered glass ceiling of the Catholic Church.
Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, editor of the Indian Currents weekly, sees these appointments as the sign of the Pope “going all out with his sweeping changes in the Church.”