According to the Vatican News, on Monday 6 January, the Solemnity of the Epiphany Pope Francis appoints Sr. Simona Brambilla, an Italian-born religious sister from the Consolata Missionaries, as Prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, along with Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime as Pro-Prefect. Sister Simona Brambilla, who will turn 60 on March 27, previously served as the Superior General of the Consolata Missionaries. She has a background that includes missionary experience in Mozambique. She was a professional nurse before joining the Consolata Missionary Sisters Institute, which she led from 2011 to 2023.
Sr. Brambilla was the second woman to be appointed Secretary of a Vatican Dicastery, following the 2021 appointment of Sr. Alessandra Smerilli to the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. She has served as Secretary of the same Dicastery since October 7, 2023, and becomes the first woman to be appointed Prefect of a Dicastery of the Holy See.
On July 8, 2019, the Pope for the first time appointed seven women as members of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Later, Sr. Brambilla was first chosen as Secretary of the Dicastery and now as Prefect.
Since the beginning of Pope Francis’s pontificate, the presence of women in the Vatican has increased. A pathway outlined by the Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium of 2022, the Pope has made it possible for laypeople, including women, to lead a Dicastery and become Prefect, a role previously reserved for Cardinals and Archbishops.
Pope Francis also chose Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, 65, whom he created Cardinal in the Consistory on September 30, 2023, as Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery.