A woman leads a Vatican office for the first time ever. Why now?

Jan 17, 2025

Colleen Dulle
On January 6, Pope Francis shattered one of the Vatican’s long-standing “stained-glass ceilings” by appointing Italian Sr Simona Brambilla, MC, as the first woman to serve as the prefect of a Vatican dicastery.

While the historic nature of this appointment dominated headlines, the announcement also included some Vatican-specific terminology that might puzzle readers: What exactly is a prefect? A pro-prefect? And what is a dicastery?

Here’s a breakdown to help clarify these terms.

What is Sr Brambilla’s new job?
Sr Brambilla, a member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order, has made history as the first woman to be appointed prefect of a Vatican dicastery. She now leads the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, the Vatican office responsible for overseeing religious orders — such as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) — and other similar “institutes” in the Church.

This appointment marks a significant milestone, as no woman has ever held the role of prefect in any Vatican office before. Previously, the highest position a woman had attained in a dicastery was that of secretary, the second-highest role. Only two women have held this position: Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, named secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development in 2021, and Sr Brambilla herself, who became secretary of her current dicastery in 2023.

As prefect, Sr Brambilla succeeds 77-year-old Brazilian Cardinal João Bráz de Aviz, who has led the dicastery since 2011. Her role as the top decision-maker in the office underscores Pope Francis’ commitment to increasing the presence of women in leadership positions within the Church.

Sr Brambilla’s leadership extends beyond her new role. In early December, she was also appointed by Pope Francis to the Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod, the committee that oversees the implementation of the most recent synod and prepares for the next assembly.

Born in Monza, Italy, on March 27, 1965, Sr Brambilla earned a degree in nursing before joining the Consolata order in 1988. She later pursued psychology studies at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, earning her doctorate in 2008. After taking her final vows in 1999, she served in Mozambique, engaging in youth ministry. In 2002, she returned to Rome to further her studies.

Sr Brambilla also demonstrated strong leadership within her congregation, serving two terms as superior of the Consolata Missionary Sisters from 2011 to May 2023. Her extensive experience and dedication to her vocation have prepared her for this groundbreaking role in the Vatican.

What is a dicastery?
A dicastery is what the Vatican calls the different offices of the Roman Curia. Prominent dicasteries include the Dicastery for Evangelisation and the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Previously, the Vatican bureaucracy included congregations, dicasteries, pontifical councils and commissions; in his 2022 apostolic constitution Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Francis made almost all these separate offices dicasteries.

What is the Roman Curia?
The Vatican’s organisation is split into two parts: the Roman Curia and the Vatican City-State. The City-State deals with practical things happening inside Vatican City: It is where you will find the event planning offices, the office in charge of St Peter’s Basilica, the police, the Vatican Museums and so on. Women have generally risen to power more easily in the City-State than in the Curia, where ordination has traditionally been seen as more central to the exercise of official roles. For example, the head of the Vatican Museums is a woman.

The Roman Curia handles “churchy” matters like doctrine, clergy and religious life but also includes the Secretariat of State, which is in charge of the Vatican’s diplomats, or nuncios. When we speak about women holding top roles in Vatican dicasteries, we’re referring to top roles in the Roman Curia, specifically. (The City-State uses different names for its various offices.)

Why didn’t this happen before?
Before 2022, it would have been impossible for a woman to head a Vatican dicastery. That year, with Praedicate Evangelium, Pope Francis overhauled the governance of the Roman Curia. In addition to simplifying the naming of offices (making them all “dicasteries”), he changed the rules to allow people who were not ordained as priests or bishops to run Vatican offices, thus opening the top positions to women for the first time.

Since Praedicate Evangelium came into effect, Vatican watchers have been waiting to see when the Pope might appoint a lay prefect. As for why an appointment has taken two and a half years since the constitutional reform, one possibility could be internal resistance in the Vatican, which Pope Francis has said he faced when appointing women previously.

The appointment of Sr Brambilla might raise some eyebrows in the Vatican, specifically because, for the first time, a cardinal will be reporting to her. Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, SDB, the former head of the Salesian order, will serve as pro-prefect under Sr Brambilla.

What is a pro-prefect?
“Pro-prefect” is a title that was previously used to describe a non-cardinal who headed a Vatican congregation, one of the types of offices that was simplified to “dicastery” in the 2022 Vatican reform. After that reform but before the appointment of Sr Brambilla, it was only used to describe the top two officials in the Dicastery for Evangelisation, and it was used because Pope Francis himself is the prefect of that dicastery.

Its use in the case of Cardinal Artime is unusual. Some have speculated that the cardinal has been made a pro-prefect in case some canonical issues come up within the dicastery that require action by an ordained bishop. (While the powers of Holy Orders and governance are separate in the Curia constitution, they are still intertwined in many places in canon law.) It is possible the Vatican will provide further explanation of the role in the coming days.

What other Vatican offices could be headed by women in the future?
Following the 2022 constitutional reform, most analysts agreed that women could lead almost any Vatican office except for the Dicastery for the Clergy and the Dicastery for Bishops. (Interestingly, the Pope did appoint women as members of the Dicastery for Bishops for the first time in 2022, giving them a say in what names are forwarded to the pope for consideration to become bishops.)

The Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, which Sr Brambilla will head, has long been seen as one that could or should be run by a woman, since the majority of members of the orders or institutes of religious life around the world are women.

Likewise, most lay people in parishes are women, so the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life is often named among those that could be headed by a woman in the future. Just after the 2022 constitutional reform took effect, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the prefect of that dicastery, told America, “I believe I could be the last cleric in charge of this dicastery.” -- America Magazine