Pope appoints three women to advisory positions

Pope Francis has appointed three women to a previously all-male advisory committee on selection of bishops across the world, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

Nuns Raffaella Petrini and Yvonne Reungoat­, and lay woman Maria Lia Zervino are the first women to join the unit that guides the pontiff on suitable candidates for ordained roles.

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This is the second appointment for Italian Sister Petrini in less than a year. In November last year, the Pope named her to the second position in the governorship of the Vatican City. She serves as the secretary-general of the Governorate of the State of Vatican City, which oversees more than 2,000 employees.

Reungoat, a French nun, is former superior general of a religious order, while Lia Zervino, an Argentine, is the current president-general of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations.

Read: Pope tells Vatican to put women, lay experts into top jobs

The three are among 14 people, including cardinals, bishops, and priests, appointed to the Dicastery for Bishops, which appraises priests and recommends their elevation to bishops.

Pope Francis is progressively promoting gender diversity in the Roman Catholic Church, which bans women from priesthood.

His bold steps to include women in the church’s leadership emboldens his strive to remove barriers in the church’s system.

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The Pope had in early July, in an interview with Reuters, revealed his intention to “give women more senior and influential positions in the Holy See.”

In February last year, he appointed French Sister Nathalie Becquart as undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, which advises the pope and has voting rights. 

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