Progress for Women in the Catholic Church Under Pope Francis

Below is a collection of statements and changes to church policies and practices that the Catholic Church experienced under Pope Francis’ leadership. 

While the journey toward full inclusion of women in all areas of the life and ministry of the church remains long, these steps show that we are not standing still.  Many of these shifts were already “permissible” within existing church structures, but through his servant leadership Francis worked to change a clericalist culture, breaking down barriers to allow women to step into leadership positions. 

Francis unlocked many doors for women, and while he may not have opened the doors fully, we know the Holy Spirit will.

*This is an incomplete list – let us know what we missed! Email us at WOC@womensordination.org

2013

• In March, on Holy Thursday, Pope Francis broke with tradition by going to Casa del Marmo Youth Detention Centre and washing the feet of twelve people there, including two women. It marks the first time that women were included in a papal Holy Thursday foot washing ritual.

• In November, Pope Francis released the apostolic exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium” (”The Joy of the Gospel”), calling for a new era of evangelization. He reiterated his “no” on women priests, but wrote: 

“I readily acknowledge that many women share pastoral responsibilities with priests, helping to guide people, families and groups and offering new contributions to theological reflection. But we need to create still broader opportunities for a more incisive female presence in the Church.

2015

• In February, Pope Francis met with the Pontifical Council of Culture and reiterated, “I am convinced of the urgency of offering spaces for women in the Church and to welcome them.” (Read more.)
  • The pontiff said he wanted “to encourage and promote the effective presence of women in many areas of the public sphere, in the world of work and in the places where the most important decisions are taken.”

2016

• In January, the Vatican publishes a letter from Pope Francis to Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, officially stating that the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday may include both women and girls, as well as men and boys. 

• In “Amoris Laetitia” (”The Joy of Love”), the pope’s April 2016 post-synodal exhortation on marriage, love and family life brought together the results of the two synods on the family (2014-2015), Francis provides an affirmation of the “women’s movement: “We must…see in the women’s movement the working of the Spirit for a clearer recognition of the dignity and rights of women.”

• In May, at the annual gathering of the International Union of Superiors General, Pope Francis agreed to create a commission to study the question of women in the diaconate, saying: “ It would do good for the church to clarify this point. I am in agreement. I will speak to do something like this…It seems useful to me to have a commission that would clarify this well.” (From NCR)

• In June, Francis elevated St. Mary Magdalene’s memorial to a full Feast Day, giving her liturgical standing equal to the male apostles. He called her the “Apostle to the Apostles,” acknowledging her foundational witness to the Resurrection.

• In July, Pope Francis named journalist Paloma García-Ovejero deputy head of the press office, a position he later said he had to “fight” internal resistance over. 

• In August, the Pope instituted the Commission on the Study of the Diaconate for Women, which consists of a gender-balanced group of academics led by Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer. It is asked to examine the historical evidence of women serving as deacons in the early centuries of the church.

• In December, Pope Francis appointed Barbara Jatta as the first woman director of the Vatican Museums, where she oversees a world-renowned art collection, including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

2018

• In April, his Apostolic Exhortation (meaning a statement issued by a pope) “Gaudete et Exsultate” (“Rejoice and Be Glad”), featured women in a way that some papal watchers found progressive—such as by acknowledging that “unknown or forgotten women … sustained and transformed families and communities”—but he took them down a peg by also writing, “Their lives may not always have been perfect, yet even amid their faults and failings they kept moving forward and proved pleasing to the Lord.”

• In October, the XV Ordinary Synod of Bishops on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment approved a final document calling the inclusion of women in decision-making structures a “duty of justice” and recommending “making everyone more aware of the urgency of an inescapable change.”

2019

• In January, he appoints the first woman to hold a senior managerial position in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State office by naming layperson Francesca di Giovanni to be a point person for diplomatic relations.

• In April, Pope Francis’ new post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation, “Christus Vivit” (Christ is Alive) acknowledges the Church’s “fair share of male authoritarianism,” and suggests the Church should support women’s “legitimate claims” for justice and rights.

• In 2019, 24 percent of employees at the Holy See were women, compared with 17.6 percent in 2010, continuing a gradual increase that began in earnest after the Second Vatican Council. (America)

• In October, the Synod on the Pan-Amazonian region opens up a public conversation about the possibility of women in the diaconate, especially in the context of a shortage of ministers in many parts of the Amazon. Delegates and auditors at the synod speak in favor of the idea.  At the conclusion of that synod, Francis said of women deacons: “I am going to take up the challenge … that you have put forward, that women be heard.”

2020

• “Querida Amazonia” (”The Beloved Amazon”) was his 2020 post-synodal exhortation in response to the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region in 2019. Addressing Catholics and all people of goodwill, the pope encouraged greater respect for the people and cultures of the Amazon region, given the plight of the people and ecosystem, and he offered reflections—based on the wisdom of the church and the Amazonian people—on the way forward.

• In April 2020 Pope Francis announced the appointments for a second commission studying the ordination of women deacons.

• In August, Pope Francis appointed six lay women to the previously all-male Council for the Economy, which oversees the financial and administrative structures of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, and appointed the first woman promoter of justice (in American parlance, a prosecutor) in the Vatican’s Court of Appeals.

2021

• In January 2021, Francis expanded canon law 230 to allow for all laypeople, including women and girls, to be installed as lectors and acolytes for the first time, although many often held that role without an official installation. 

• In February, Sr. Nathalie Becquart, XMCJ, was named as the Undersecretary for the Synod of Bishops. She was the first woman to hold this position, a role which would make her eligible to vote in synods.

• In May, Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter, Antiquum Ministerium, instituted the Ministry of Catechist for all laypeople. 

• Also in May, the Vatican announced the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of Synod of Bishops, on the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” Planned for 2021-2024, the synod plans to use a novel three-stage process with a consultation of the people of God at the diocesan level, a continental stage, and a universal stage at the Vatican in 2023 and 2024.

•  In August, Pope Francis appointed Sr. Alessandra Smerilli, FMA, as the interim Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

• In October, Pope Francis formally opened the Synod on Synodality.

“Participating in a Synod means placing ourselves on the same path as the Word made flesh.  It means following in his footsteps, listening to his word along with the words of others.  It means discovering with amazement that the Holy Spirit always surprises us, to suggest fresh paths and new ways of speaking.  It is a slow and perhaps tiring exercise, this learning to listen to one another – bishops, priests, religious and laity, all the baptized – and to avoid artificial and shallow and pre-packaged responses.  The Spirit asks us to listen to the questions, concerns and hopes of every Church, people and nation.  And to listen to the world, to the challenges and changes that it sets before us.  Let us not soundproof our hearts; let us not remain barricaded in our certainties.  So often our certainties can make us closed.  Let us listen to one another.”

– Pope Francis, homily for the opening Mass for the Synod on Synodality

2022

• In March, the Vatican issued a new apostolic constitution, Praedicate Evangelium, with the first major reforms of the Roman Curia since 1988.  In it, the pope officially separated the power of governance in the Vatican from the “sacramental power” conferred on men by Holy Orders. This change means that any Catholic — lay or ordained, male or female — can be appointed to lead any of the Vatican’s 16 departments, known as dicasteries. His distinction between these two kinds of authority in the church is the key to understanding his promotion of women to roles previously held only by cardinals and bishops without making women cardinals and bishops.

• In July,  María Lía Zervino, Salesian Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, and Franciscan Sr. Raffaella Petrini are appointed as the first three women members of the Vatican Dicastery of Bishops, which assists in the selection of bishops worldwide.

2023

• In April, Pope Francis approves changes to the norms for the Synod of Bishops that allows lay people, including 52 women, to participate as synodal delegates and vote at a synod for the first time.

• In October, women synod delegates participate in a Synod of Bishops for the first time, including by voting on the final document of the assembly.

2024

• During the Angelus on March 10th, following International Women’s Day, Pope Francis said: “There is still a lot of work that each of us must do in order for there to be concrete recognition of the equal dignity of women.”

• In October, women participate and vote again in the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican. Lay delegates especially held the synodal process accountable to the People of God and challenged the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the faith to proceed with more transparency and openness toward the question of women in ministry.
  

• While the final synod document does not make a decision about women deacons or priests, it leaves the question of the women’s diaconate open to discernment and, on the issue of women in church leadership, writes: “What comes from the Holy Spirit cannot be stopped.” (60)
  

2025

• In January, he appoints Sr. Simona Brambilla to the role of prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. 
  

• In February, he appoints Sr. Rafaella Petrini as the first woman to head the Vatican City governorate.