Pope Leo XIV made the first female appointment of the new pontificate to the Roman Curia, the central administrative organ of the Catholic Church, on Thursday (22).
Sister Tiziana Merletti was chosen as secretary of the dicker for the institutes of consecrated life and the societies of apostolic life, which regulates rules of Catholic religious institutions around the world. A dicker is equivalent to a Vatican ministry.
This department linked to the institutes was the first in the Curia to be headed by a woman.
Pope Francis, predecessor of Leo XIV, appointed sister Simona Brambilla as mayor in the same Merletti office in January this year.
And who is the new secretary?
Tiziana Merletti was born on September 30, 1959, in the Abruços region, downtown Italy.
According to Vatican News, the Catholic News Portal, the religious is part of the Franciscan Sisters Congregation of the Poor.
Merletti graduated in law in 1984 and made a doctorate of canon law at the Pontifical Lateranense University in 1992.
Between 2004 and 2014, she held the position of General Superior of the Religious Institute.
At the moment, Tiziana is a professor at the college where he did his doctorate in Rome.
Francisco boosted the role of women in the Vatican
Pope Francis, predecessor of Leo XIV, boosted the inclusion of women in prominent functions in the Catholic Church.
When Francis was elected in 2013, women accounted for only 19.2% of Vatican employees. A decade later, the percentage rose to 23.4%.
According to Vatican News survey conducted in 2023, the number of women working at the Santa See and the Vatican City Administration had a leap from 846 to 1165.
At the time of the promotion of the survey, the Holy See employed 3,114 people, including 812 women.
In practice, this means that one in four employees was a woman. A remarkable number for the Catholic Church.
Throughout the years of Pontificate of Francis, women have earned unpublished appointments for positions at the Vatican and the right to vote in global bishops.
In January 2025, for example, the pontiff appointed Simona Brambilla as mayor, being the first woman chosen for leadership of an important office of the Vatican.
*Under the supervision of Derla Cardoso
This content was originally published in Papa Leo XIV names a woman to the Vatican Central Administration body on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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