On Monday, Pope Francis appointed Sister Simona Brambilla as leader Vatican office which oversees religious orders for men and women – including more than a quarter of the world’s priests – making her the first woman to reach the No. 1 position in the Holy See office.

The choice reflects Francis’ open goal to give women greater leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church. He appointed several women to high positions, including the director of the Vatican Museums. Sister Brambilla is the first prefect of the Roman department Manor houseas the central administration of the church is known.

“This is very good news,” said Anne-Marie Pelletier, a theologian who also wrote a book on Fr women and the church. “It is something completely new” and shows what can be done in the church. “For me, this is a really important moment.”

But alongside Sister Brambilla, Francis appointed Cardinal Angelo Fernandez Artime as proprefect or co-head of the department. It was not immediately clear how the two would share responsibilities, and some critics saw the joint appointment as diluting Sister Brambilla’s effective role.

“For a woman to be appointed prefect would be great news, if it weren’t for the fact that someone stood by her, it’s like assigning her a guardian who can control her,” he said. Lucetta Scaraffiachurch historian and feminist, who said that in this context the appointment was “window dressing”.

Sister Brambilla will lead the department – its official name is the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life – which promotes and supervises religious orders of men and women, although the vast majority are female. According to Vatican statistics published last year, about 128,500 priests — more than 25 percent of the world’s total — belonged to orders like the Jesuits or Franciscans as of 2022, as did fewer than 50,000 brothers. The number of women in religious orders totaled 599,228 in 2022. The department also oversees many lay movements.

Before 2019, all members of the Vatican department were men, but both nuns and some bishops have long complained about the absence of women in decision-making positions in the office with operations that could directly affect their lives. In 2019, Franjo appointed seven women members of the department. In 2022, he announced a new constitution reforming the Roman Curia that allowed lay people, including women, to become prefects. In 2023, Sister Brambilla was elected secretary of the department. She takes over from Brazilian Cardinal Joao Brazo de Aviz (77), who was appointed in 2011.

Sister Brambilla, 59, was born in Monza, near Milan. She was a professional nurse before becoming a Consolata missionary, and has a doctorate in psychology. She led her religious order as superior from 2011 to 2023.

Critics accuse Francis of stalling when it comes to appointing women to leadership positions in the church, but he has done more than his predecessors. Only 10 years agoonly two women held the highest positions in the Curia. Now there are about a dozen of them. According to Vatican News, from 2013 to 2023, the percentage of women working in the Vatican rose to 23.4 percent from 19.2 percent.

The first time, two years ago Franjo allowed women to vote at a meeting of bishops that sought to outline the future of the church. Although the role of women in the church was among the most discussed topics at that meeting, which ended in October, it remains an open question whether women can be ordained as deaconesses.

“It’s definitely a positive development at the Vatican,” Kate McElwee, executive director Conference on the ordination of womenhe said of Sister Brambilla’s appointment. However, she was also confused by the role of parish priest. “It just goes to show that there are still some hurdles that women have to go through to take these positions in the Vatican,” she said.