Pope Francis appointed about a dozen women to top roles at the Vatican during his 12-year pontificate, and in the last months of his life seemed to step up that commitment, naming the first woman to lead a major Vatican office and choosing a woman as president of the Vatican City State.
He had also previously put a woman in charge of the office overseeing synodality, the process Francis used to increase collaboration in an otherwise top-down institution. During the synod on synodality, for the first time in history, lay people, including about 50 women, were able to vote — and the results of those votes became magisterial teaching. He also changed the Code of Canon Law to explicitly allow women as lectors and altar servers.
Read Full Article »