Pope Francis
Pope Francis In Biden, the media finally has a religious president to celebrate the papal commemorations of Holocaust Remembrance Day with a warning against extremism. Pope must miss three upcoming events due to sciatic leg pain MORE this weekend appointed two women to positions previously held only by men.
Reuters reports that Pope Nathalie Becquart, 52, has been appointed co-secretary of the Synod of Bishops on Saturday. Becquart, a French member of the Xaviere Missionary Sisters, will now be part of the department that holds large meetings between world bishops that take place every few years.
Becquart’s new position gives her the power to vote in all men’s meetings, Reuters said. Although women have been observed and consulted in synods in the past, only male representatives have previously been allowed to vote on documents sent to the pope.
A door was opened. We will see what other steps can be taken in the future, ”the synod’s secretary general, Cardinal Mario Grech, told the official Vatican newspaper.
Pope Francis has also appointed Catia Summaria, an Italian magistrate, as the first female judge in the Vatican’s appellate court, Reuters added.
As the news service notes, the pope had earlier appointed women to several other senior roles. Last year, he allegedly appointed six women to senior roles in overseeing the Vatican’s finances, and he appointed women as deputy foreign minister, director of the Vatican museums and deputy head of the Vatican’s Press Office.
Francis maintained the church’s position on banning female priests, Reuters said, although he set up commissions to investigate the history of female deacons in the early history of the Catholic Church.