ROME – In a new interview Pope Francis announced that after recently appointing the first-ever woman prefect of a Vatican department, he will soon name another to a key role overseeing administration of the Vatican City State.

Francis’s remarks came in an interview with Italian journalist Fabio Fazio that aired Sunday, Jan. 19, on the popular evening television program, Che tempo che fa.

He was asked by Fazio about the recent appointment of Italian Sister Simona Brambilla as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, commonly called the Dicastery for Religious, and what that means for Catholic women in the future.

In response, the pope said it’s not just a relevant appointment for the future, but also “for the present.”

“The work of women in the curia is something that has progressed slowly and has been well understood,” he said, noting that three women now form part of a panel that vets and approves new candidates for the episcopacy.

He noted that there is also a woman, Italian Sister Rafaella Petrini, who serves as vice-governor of the Governorate of the Vatican City State, who he said, “will become the governor in March.”

Petrini, 56, will take over for Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, who will turn 80 in March and who has led the Governorate since 2021 and who is also a member of the pope’s Council of Cardinals advisory body.

Pope Francis in the interview also noted that a woman serves as Vice Coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy.

“Women know how to do things better than us,” he said, recalling how he once asked the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, who is a mother of seven, how she managed her time.

In response, she made a gesture indicating that she simply did it, he said, saying, “like mothers do.”

“Women are better managed than us, and as that cynic said, it was another reality, since the day of Earthly Paradise they are in charge,” he said.

Pope Francis has made a point of appointing more women to leadership in Vatican roles, including influential decision-making positions within the Roman Curia, including Brambilla and, soon, Petrini.

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There are rumors that eventually, he will also name Italian Sister and economist Alessandra Smerilli, secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development, as prefect.

Should this happen, she would take over for Canadian Jesuit Cardinal Michael Czerny, who has long been a close papal ally and the pope’s pointman on the issue of migrants and refugees.

Over the past four years, during the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, the role of women in the Church and the issue of women’s inclusion in meaningful leadership and decision-making roles has been a key point of discussion in the Catholic Church.

While the pope for the time being has ruled out women’s priestly ordination and the women’s diaconate, he has been studying topics surrounding the role of women in the Church in his Council of Cardinals, and has heard from various theologians and experts.

He has traditionally stressed the complementarity of men and women and has often touted Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar’s Petrine and Marian principles as underlining how the role of Mary, and therefore the role of women in the Church is more important that that of men, regardless of their access to ordination.

Francis’s appointment of Brambilla as prefect was met with applause by many who hailed it as a major step forward for women in the Vatican.

However, it was also met with skepticism by some who continue to have canonical doubts about a woman serving as prefect.

To this end, much was made of the announcement alongside Brambilla’s appointment that Spanish Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, 65, the former head of the Salesian order, was named pro-prefect, without fully explaining what his exact role would be.

His appointment as pro-prefect in the Dicastery for Religious has been boiled down to a longstanding argument among canon lawyers and experts that because heads of some Vatican departments make binding decisions in the name of the pope, sharing in the exercise of his power, they therefore need to be in Holy Orders, meaning ordained to the priesthood.

That debate remains lively, especially in light of Brambilla’s appointment, making the nomination of future women prefects such as Petrini or perhaps, eventually, Smerilli, a lingering point of discomfort for many, yet one Pope Francis seems happy to ignore.

Some observers have also argued that other than Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, which is Vatican City’s main source of revenue, there are few lay women, or, for that matter, lay men, in positions of Vatican leadership.

For the Vatican, which tends to think in centuries rather than days or weeks or years, change can be slow, and adjusting to having women in charge, religious or not, will take time, however, Pope Francis doesn’t seem to be wasting any.

Follow Elise Ann Allen on X: @eliseannallen