Following the official confirmation of the death of a Pope, the conclave begins to elect the next maximum chief of the Catholic Church.
A document, left by the last Pope, explains what the conclave should look like and how the church will be governed during the period of a vacant section – a time when Pope’s position is vague.
The elections happen to closed doors and without contact with the outside world. To be the next religious leader to assume the pontificate, it is necessary to reach at least 2/3 of the votes of cardinals voters.
And who can be Pope?
In theory, any priest. The priest is someone who performs religious functions, usually as an intermediate between deities and the faithful, as a priest, who consequently is a man.
It is that the Code of Canonic Law of the Catholic Church, in canon 1024, states that only baptized men can be ordained priests.
“The Code of Canon Law, the current Catholic Church Law, says that to be elected Pope, it is necessary to be a priest. That is, at least from the order of the elders (who would be a priest),” explains Filipe Domingues, a Vatican specialist and a doctor of social sciences from the Pontifical Gregorian University, based in Rome.
“If you are a priest, you must be ordained bishop before you are sworn in. But the possibility of this happening is virtually none. Over the past centuries, the Pope is elected among the cardinals voters. There is no recent historical precedent otherwise,” Filipe Domingues continues.
“In practice, usually, the appointed popes are those who have been part of the Cardeal College for many years,” says Father Paulo Manoel de Souza Profilo, professor of canon law at the Unisal Center (Salesian University Center of São Paulo) and São Paulo College.
Then the Catholic Church does not order women. With this, a woman, therefore, cannot be a Pope since it can be neither bishop nor cardinal.
And why can’t a woman be a Pope?
According to the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ chose 12 men as apostles. According to Vatican archives, priestly ordination is based on this logic, and the fact that it is a role exclusively reserved for men is linked to it.
That is, the deduction would be that, according to the will of Jesus Christ, such positions must be occupied only by men – and the whole hierarchical structure of the Church is based on this historical tradition.
Women make up most faithful – while men are responsible for all decisions.
“Women seek concrete changes and reforms that urgently recognize their equality,” Kate Mcelwee, executive director of Women’s Ordination Worldwide, told the executive director CNN .
Pope Francis extended female presence
Argentine Pontiff Francisco increased the presence of women in Vatican leadership positions along his papacy, as well as having more women for “second in command” duties in several offices.
Pope Francis appointed on January 6, 2025 the first woman for the leadership of an important Vatican department.
He chose 59 -year -old Italian Simona Brambilla to direct the Vatican’s dickering to the Consecrated Institutes of Life and Apostolic Life Societies – Office that supervises the world’s Catholic religious orders.
Francisco also appointed Raffaella Petrini, currently Secretary General of the Vatican Governorate (Vatican Government Palace), as president of the Governanatorate from March 1, 2025.
There is also the presence of women on the board of a Vatican department named bishops.
According to Vatican News, the Holy See News Portal, during the meeting of Pope Francis with 150 Jesuit confreres of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands at the Collège Saint-Michel in Brussels, the Catholic leader approached the role of women in the church.
Francisco emphasized that he tried to “increasingly bring women to the Vatican with increasingly high responsibility roles.”
“We will continue on this path. Things are working better than before,” he told listeners at the event.
Was this content originally published in women become a Papa? Understand explanation of the Catholic Church on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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