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Pope stipulates that any baptized lay Catholic, including women, can head Vatican bodies


Pope Francis waves during his weekly general audience at the Paul VI hall in the Vatican on October 14, 2020.

Alberto Pizzali | AFP | beautiful pictures

On Saturday, Pope Francis issued a new constitution for the Vatican’s central administrative body, known as the Curia, stating that any baptized lay Catholic, including women , can all head Vatican agencies.

Most Vatican offices are headed by male clerics, usually cardinals. The new 54-page constitution, called Praedicate Evangelium (Preaching the Gospel), took more than nine years to complete.

It will enter into force on June 5, replacing a law ratified in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.

Part of the preamble to the constitution says: “Popes, bishops and other ordained ministers are not the only evangelizers in the Church,” adding that men and women teachers Citizens “must have government roles and responsibilities.”

The principle section of the constitution states that “any member of the faithful may head a curia body or organization” if the pope decides that is qualified and appoints them. It does not distinguish between male and female lay people.

The 1988 constitution provided that the departments would be headed by a cardinal or bishop and supported by secretaries, specialists, and administrators.

In an interview with Reuters in 2018, the pope revealed that he had briefly listed a woman for the position of head of the Vatican’s economic department but that she could not accept the job due to personal reasons. .

Last year, Pope Francis appointed a woman to the number two position of acting governor of Vatican City for the first time, making Sister Raffaella Petrini the highest-ranking woman in the world’s smallest state.

Also last year, he appointed Italian nun Alessandra Smerilli to the post of temporary secretary of the Vatican’s development office, which deals with issues of justice and peace.

In addition, Pope Francis has appointed Nathalie Becquart, a French member of the Xavier Mission Sisters, as co-secretary of the Synod of Bishops, a body that prepares major meetings of the world’s bishops held every few years.



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