New High-Level Appointments Signal Changing Vatican Role for Women, by Solène Tadié

The Pope’s decision to include these women in an all-male dicastery responds to a desire to better represent the various realities of consecrated life and to strengthen the presence of women in decision-making positions.

By Solène Tadié, National Catholic Register, 8/6/19

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis appointed seven women members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (less formally known as the Congregation for Consecrated Life), the dicastery that oversees consecrated life for men and women in the Catholic Church.

Six of the women are superior generals of religious orders: Mother Kathleen Appler, the U.S. superior of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; Mother Yvonne Reungoat, of the Salesian Sisters; Mother Françoise Massy, of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary; Mother Luigia Coccia, of the Comboni Sisters; Mother Simona Brambilla, of the Consolata Missionary Sisters; and Mother Rita Calvo Sanz, of the Company of Mary Our Lady.

The seventh is consecrated laywoman Olga Krizova. She is the general president of the Volunteers of Don Bosco, a secular institute of pontifical title that follows Salesian spirituality. According to the Code of Canon Law, a secular institute “is an institute of consecrated life in which the faithful, living in this world, strive for the perfection of charity and endeavor to work for the sanctification of the world from within.” ….

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