a Pope Francis Saturday (19) announced a historic change allowing anyone baptized into Catholicism, male or female, to head the Vatican departments. For centuries, it has been Previously held leadership positions male clergyusually cardinals or bishops.
The new constitution, which amends the rules of the central administration of the Vatican, called the Praedicate Evangelium (evangelization), took more than nine years to complete. It was launched on the ninth anniversary of Francis’s enthronement and will enter into force on June 5, replacing the document issued in 1988 by Pope John Paul II.
The document says that “the pope, bishops and other ordained servants are not the only missionaries in the Church,” adding that lay men and women “should have a role in governance and responsibility” in Korea.
The Principles section of the Constitution states that any individual of the faithful can head a department or body if the Pope determines that they are qualified and appoints them.
The 1988 constitution stipulated that departments, with a few exceptions, should be headed by a cardinal or a bishop and assisted by a secretary, specialists, and administrators.
The new constitution does not distinguish between laity and laity, although the appointment of the layman depends on the “special competence, power of government, and function” of the department.
The general constitution allows departments to have their own internal constitutions. Experts said at least two of them, the Bishops’ Department and the Ministry of the Clergy, would continue to have men as priests because only men could be priests in the Catholic Church.
They said the Department of Consecrated Life, responsible for the religious order, could be headed by a nun in the future.
In an interview with Reuters news agency in 2018, the Pope revealed that he had chosen a woman to head an economic department at the Vatican, but she could not accept the position for personal reasons.
The new constitution states that the role of the Catholic lay people in the administration of the curia is “essential” because of their knowledge of family life and social reality.
Last year, Francis appointed for the first time a woman in second place in Vatican City government, making Sister Raffaella Petrini the highest ranked woman in the world’s smallest state. He also appointed Italian nun Sister Alessandra Smirelli to the position of temporary secretary in the Vatican’s Development Office, which deals with issues of justice and peace.
In addition, Francis appointed Nathalie Piccoart, a French member of the Missionary Sisters of Xavier, as co-president of the Synod of Bishops, a department that prepares major meetings of the world’s bishops every few years.
