Women in the church, the Pope appoints Sister Becquart: “An important sign”

Women in the church. Now there is a woman among the Pope’s advisers. Sister Nathalie Becquart was appointed by Pope Francis as undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops, permanent council which has the task of helping the pontiff in the governance of the Catholic Church.

For the first time a woman will have the right to vote in the Synod which, since it was established by Pope Paul VI in 1965, has seen only the bishops vote. Over the years the women had been listeners and had had the opportunity to speak at the assembly, never to vote.

Sister Nathalie Becquart, born in Fontainebleau in 1969, is a member of the congregation of Xaverian missionaries. She was responsible for youth and vocation ministry at the French Bishops’ Conference. For two years he has been a consultant to the Synod called for his skills as it is possible for people who are not bishops. Together with Sister Becquart, Father Luis Marín de San Martín was also appointed undersecretary.

For the French Severian it is together a call to service and an adventure. “I never imagined this; I have experienced that the Holy Spirit is full of surprises. I am very impressed and at the same time I receive this nomination as a call from the Church and from Pope Francis who comes to join an interior call that I have been feeling for several years now to put synodality at the service of me ”.

It is clearly a new opening to women by Pope Bergoglio. “I welcome this task as a sign of trust in women in the Church, for the religious, and more generally also for the laity and as a response to everything that has been said during the last Synods and on which the Pope insists a lot: the challenge of involving women in decisions and discernment in the Church “.

Sister Becquart trusts in the work of one diverse team. The challenge is this: “To work together in the Church, men, women, priests, bishops, lay people, religious, in the diversity of vocations”.