VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named six superiors of women’s religious orders, a consecrated laywoman and the superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers to be full members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Previously, the members had all been men: cardinals, a few bishops and several priests who were superiors of large religious orders of men.

The women named members by the pope were announced by the Vatican July 8: Sisters Kathleen Appler, the U.S.-born superior of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; Yvonne Reungoat, superior of the Salesian Sisters; Francoise Massy, superior of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary; Luigia Coccia, superior of the Comboni Sisters; Simona Brambilla, superior of the Consolata Missionary Sisters; Rita Calvo Sanz, superior of the Company of Mary Our Lady; and Olga Krizova, general president of the Volunteers of Don Bosco, a group of consecrated laypeople.

Brother Robert I. Schieler, the U.S.-born superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, also was named a full member of the congregation along with the priests who are superiors general of the Jesuits, the Discalced Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Scalabrinians, the Capuchins and the abbot president of the Subiaco Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.

The new members announced by the Vatican also included five bishops and four cardinals: Cardinals Angelo De Donatis, papal vicar for Rome; Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life; Luis Ladaria Ferrer, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Valladolid, Spain. </s> .- Pope Francis Monday appointed 23 new members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, among them six women religious superior generals and one head of a women’s secular institute.

The July 8 nominations, which include cardinals, bishops, and the superior generals of several male religious communities, breaks with past practice in including women.

Demonstrating Pope Francis’ increased attention to putting women in leadership within the Vatican, the appointments follow the 2014 nomination of Sr. Irma Luzia Premoli, superior general of the Comboni Missionaries, as a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Premoli’s appointment was the first time a superior general of a female institute was named a member of a congregation.

The six women superior generals are Sr. Kathleen Appler of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; Sr. Yvonne Reungoat of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (also known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco); Sr. Françoise Massy of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary; Sr. Luigia Coccia of the Comboni Missionaries; Sr. Simona Brambilla of the Consolata Missionaries; and Sr. M. Rita Calvo Sanz of the Company of Mary Our Lady.

Olga Krizova, general president of the Don Bosco Secular Institute, was also nominated.

Pastor bonus, the 1988 apostolic constitution regulating the Roman Curia which will soon be replaced, says the ordinary members of a congregation are cardinals and bishops, though “according to the specific nature of certain dicasteries, clerics and other faithful can be added to the body of cardinals and bishops.”

Other new members of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life include Cardinals Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of Rome; Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life; Luis Ladaria Ferrer, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Valladolid.

Five bishops and seven superior generals of male institutes were also nominated. </s> Women seeking a greater voice in the all-male hierarchy of the Catholic church are hailing Pope Francis’ announcement that women will be named to a ministerial board of the Vatican’s powerful Curia.

“This is a quite historical in a number of ways,” said Sister Carol Zinn, executive director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. “These people, traditionally, have been clerics. Now, this office will have members who will actually be impacted by their decisions.”

For the first time, not only women but also persons who are not ordained as priests will have a vote within the Catholic church’s governing body.

Pope Francis on Monday surprised reporters who follow the Catholic Church by naming seven women and the head of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, a religious order of teachers, to the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life is one of nine congregations within the Roman Curia, and has been described as a disciplinary body — or vetting board — for a variety of religious life and apostolic orders.

Sister Zinn said questions about the importance of such a post reminded her of when married family members ask her for advice.

“I really have no idea,” Sister Zinn said. “And it is similar with consecrated life.”

The presence of women on the congregation also strikes a chord among Catholics who wish for women to hold greater leadership roles beyond individual parishes.

“Women religious are always being disciplined by men,” said Melissa Wilde, a sociologist from the University of Pennsylvania who has written on the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican of the 1960s. “It’s yet another sign of Francis being more open to change.”

“It’s a good start and about time,” said Jeannine Pitas, a professor an English/Spanish professor at University of Dubuque and a Catholic writer. “Even if it’s a symbolic gesture, it’s an important one to reforming the male-dominated hierarchy.”

Six of the women are superiors of religious orders, such as the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. A seventh woman, Olga Krizova, is general president of the Volunteers of Don Bosco, a group of consecrated laypeople.

The Vatican made no formal announcement, and the women’s names appeared along with other nominees to the previously all-male congregation. But the presence of women and a Christian Brother on a congregation presents a stark image of Francis’ belief for the global church to rely on a diverse group of laypeople to have a say in church affairs.

“The Holy Father believes in the involvement of everyone in the life of the church, and this is one more example of creating inclusivity,” said Sister Zinn.

It also represents a contrast from his papal predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, who retired in 2013.

The congregation to which the women were named oversees lay and women religious societies, and has exhibited skepticism toward female religious orders.

Under Benedict, the congregation — then led by Cardinal Franc Rode — ordered an investigation of 127 women orders. In a speech, Cardinal Rode said some American nuns had “opted for ways that take them outside” the church.

A separate investigation of nuns during Benedict’s tenure focused of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the group Sister Zinn now leads, and was ordered by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the oldest of the Curia’s nine congregations.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large for America Magazine, issued support for the inclusion of women on the congregation, calling it a “highly significant step” on Twitter.

It also represents for some a crack in the doorway to female ordination — though only a small crack, if that.

“You have to remember that Vatican II ended in 1965, right after the publication of the ‘Feminine Mystique,’” said Ms. Wilde. “In some ways, the feminist movement has not yet had an impact on the Catholic church.” </s> ROME — Pope Francis named six superiors of women’s religious orders, a consecrated laywoman and the superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers to be full members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Previously, the members had all been men: cardinals, a few bishops and several priests who were superiors of large religious orders of men.

The women named members by the pope were announced by the Vatican July 8: Sisters Kathleen Appler, the U.S.-born superior of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; Yvonne Reungoat, superior of the Salesian Sisters; Francoise Massy, superior of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary; Luigia Coccia, superior of the Comboni Sisters; Simona Brambilla, superior of the Consolata Missionary Sisters; Rita Calvo Sanz, superior of the Company of Mary Our Lady; and Olga Krizova, general president of the Volunteers of Don Bosco, a group of consecrated laypeople.

Brother Robert I. Schieler, the U.S.-born superior of the De La Salle Christian Brothers, also was named a full member of the congregation along with the priests who are superiors general of the Jesuits, the Discalced Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Scalabrinians, the Capuchins and the abbot president of the Subiaco Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.

The new members announced by the Vatican also included five bishops and four cardinals: Cardinals Angelo De Donatis, papal vicar for Rome; Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life; Luis Ladaria Ferrer, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; and Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Valladolid, Spain.

Crux is dedicated to smart, wired and independent reporting on the Vatican and worldwide Catholic Church. That kind of reporting doesn’t come cheap, and we need your support. You can help Crux by giving a small amount monthly, or with a onetime gift. Please remember, Crux is a for-profit organization, so contributions are not tax-deductible. </s> This is the third time the magazine has chosen a pope as its Person of the Year. Time gave that honour to Pope John Paul II in 1994 and to Pope John XXIII in 1963.

The Argentine pontiff - who, as archbishop of Buenos Aires was known as the slum cardinal for his visits to the poor and penchant for subway travel - beat former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden and gay rights activist Edith Windsor for the award.

Other finalists included Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas.

"What makes this Pope so important is the speed with which he has captured the imaginations of millions who had given up on hoping for the church at all," Time said in its cover story.

"In a matter of months, Francis has elevated the healing mission of the church — the church as servant and comforter of hurting people in an often harsh world — above the doctrinal police work so important to his recent predecessors."

Time said the final selection was made by its editors, who had considered suggestions from the magazine's more than 2 million Twitter followers.

Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said Pope Francis, the first non-European pope in 1,300 years, the first from Latin America and the first Jesuit, was not seeking fame.

"It is a positive sign that one of the most prestigious recognitions by the international media has been given to a person who proclaims to the world spiritual, religious and moral values and speaks out forcefully in favour of peace and greater justice," Lombardi said in a statement.

"If this attracts men and women and gives them hope, the Pope is happy. If this choice of 'Person of the Year' means that many have understood this message, even implicitly, he is certainly glad."

In September, Francis gave a groundbreaking and frank interview, in which he said the Vatican must shake off an obsession with teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality, and become more merciful.

And in July, Francis told reporters he was not in a position to judge homosexuals who are of good will and in search of God, marking a break from his predecessor, Benedict, who said homosexuality was an intrinsic disorder.

Francis replaced Benedict in March after he abdicated.

The new pope's style is characterized by frugality. He shunned the spacious papal apartment in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace to live in a small suite in a Vatican guest house, and he prefers a Ford Focus to the traditional pope's Mercedes.

A champion of the downtrodden, he visited the island of Lampedusa in southern Italy in July to pay tribute to hundreds of migrants who had died crossing the sea from North Africa.

With the Catholic Church marred in recent years by sex abuse scandals, Francis formed a team of experts Thursday to consider ways to improve the screening of priests, to protect minors to help victims.

Still, Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victim advocacy group, said in a statement Wednesday that more action was needed.

"After nine months of essentially ignoring the church's most severe crisis, (Pope Francis) hastily announced last week that he'll appoint an abuse study panel," Blaine said. "He has not, however, made a single child safer." </s> The Vatican has condemned 'gender theory', the notion that people should be able to choose or change their gender, as a “confused concept of freedom” not “based on the truths of existence” in an official new document.

The Vatican booklet released Monday, titled “Male and Female He Created Them” describes gender fluidity as a symptom of the “momentary desires” that characterise post-modern culture, and claims that basing gender on self-identity rather than biology is an attempt to “annihilate nature”.

The right to “choose one’s gender”, the Vatican says in the document, is in “direct contradiction of the model of marriage as being between one man and one woman”.

The text was designed to aid Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education, calling gender theory an “educational crisis” in the field of sex education.

It called for a “path of dialogue” and for educators to address the issue of gender theory directly.

The advocacy group New Ways Ministry told the media it would further confuse individuals who are questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and are at risk of self-harm.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science.

“Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry — things not visible at birth,” Mr. DeBernardo said in a statement.

​Even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the document seems to rely entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians.

Prominent Jesuit Priest Father James Martin, who has advocated for the church to more openly welcome LGBT members, said on Twitter that while the new document supports dialogue and listening, it “sets aside the real-life experiences of LGBT people”.

“The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document,” said Father Martin, author of the book Building A Bridge, on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community.

“We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin.”

The released Vatican document, as anticipated, split Twitter users, eliciting very diverse reactions.

At a time of increased secularisation, the church has been facing a challenge as many of its teachings on sexuality are being ignored as out of date. 

Pope Francis has earlier expressed an interest in outreach to LGBT followers, while adopting a definitive stance on gender identity, denouncing the fact that children are taught in schools that “everyone can choose his or her sex”. </s> VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican issued an official document Monday rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisting on the sexual "complementarity" of men and women to make babies.

The document, published during LGBT Pride Month, was immediately denounced by LGBT Catholics as contributing to bigotry and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Advocacy group New Ways Ministry said it would confuse individuals questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and at risk of self-harm.

The text, "Male and Female He Created Them," was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican's Congregation for Catholic Education called an "educational crisis" in the field of sex education.

It called for a "path of dialogue" and listening on the issue of "gender theory" in education. But even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the text appeared to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents, and philosophers and theologians.

"The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document," said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled Building a Bridge. "We should welcome the congregation's call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin."

Pope Francis has repeatedly argued that people cannot choose their genders. But the document represents the first attempt to put the Vatican's position into an official text.

The document called for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a "positive and prudent sexual education" in Catholic schools so children learn the "full original truth of masculinity and femininity."

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the "confused concept of freedom" and "momentary desires" that characterize post-modern culture.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia.

"Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry -- things not visible at birth," DeBernardo said in a statement. "People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences." </s> VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis named 17 new cardinals Sunday — 13 of them under age 80 and thus eligible to vote in a conclave to elect his successor. Three of the new cardinals are Americans, including leading U.S. moderate Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich and Indianapolis Archbishop Joseph Tobin.

As is Francis’ tradition, the new cardinals hail from some of the most far-away and peripheral corners of the globe, with Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania getting far more representation than Europe, which has long dominated the College of Cardinals.

New to the club of the “princes” of the church are bishops from Bangui, Central African Republic; Port Louis, Mauritius and Tlalnepantla, Mexico.

Significantly only one Italian elector was named: Francis’ ambassador to “the beloved and martyred Syria,” Cardinal-elect Mario Zenari.

Francis said the 17 would be elevated at a consistory on Nov. 19, on the eve of the close to his Holy Year of Mercy.

Of the new cardinals, Cupich is very much a pastor in Francis’ likeness, emphasizing the merciful and welcoming side of the church — somewhat to the dismay of U.S. conservative Catholics. His nomination as Chicago archbishop was Francis’ first major U.S. appointment and he was a papal appointee at the pope’s big family synod last year.

The nomination for Tobin could indicate Francis’ appreciation of Tobin’s support for American nuns. Tobin had been the No. 2 in the Vatican office for religious orders for only two years when in 2012, then-Pope Benedict XVI sent him back to the U.S. to head the Indianapolis archdiocese, which had fewer than 230,000 parishioners.

The transfer was seen in some Vatican circles as being tied to Tobin’s efforts to promote dialogue and resolve tensions between the Vatican and U.S. nuns who were subject of two separate Holy See investigations. After Francis was elected, both investigations were concluded with Vatican praise for the work of the sisters.

The third American, Cardinal-elect Kevin Farrell, the outgoing bishop of Dallas, was an expected nomination. Francis in August named him to head the big new Vatican secretariat for laity, family and life issues.

This version corrects the spelling of Blase Cupich sted Blaise. </s> The Vatican issued an official document Monday rejecting the idea that people can choose or change their genders and insisting on the sexual “complementarity” of men and women to make babies.

The document, published during LGBT Pride Month, was immediately denounced by LGBT Catholics as contributing to bigotry and violence against gay and transgender people. Advocacy group New Ways Ministry said it would further confuse individuals questioning their gender identity or sexual orientation and at risk of self-harm.

The text, “Male and Female He Created Them,” was intended to help Catholic teachers, parents, students and clergy address what the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education called an “educational crisis” in the field of sex education.

It called for a “path of dialogue” and listening on the issue of “gender theory” in education. But even priestly advocates for LGBT Catholics noted that the text appeared to have relied entirely on previous papal pronouncements, Vatican documents and philosophers and theologians.

“The real-life experiences of LGBT people seem entirely absent from this document,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest who wrote a book on improving Catholic Church outreach to the LGBT community, titled “Building a Bridge.” ”We should welcome the congregation’s call to dialogue and listening on gender, and I hope that conversation will now begin.“ Pope Francis has repeatedly argued the position that people cannot choose their genders. But the document represents the first attempt to put the Vatican’s position, first articulated fully by Pope Benedict XVI in a 2012 speech, into a comprehensive, official text.

The document called for a new alliance among families, schools and society to offer a “positive and prudent sexual education” in Catholic schools so children learn the “full original truth of masculinity and femininity.”

It called gender fluidity a symptom of the “confused concept of freedom” and “momentary desires” that characterize postmodern culture. It rejected terms such as “intersex” and “transgender” and said the purpose of the biological “complementarity” of the male and female sex organs was to ensure procreation.

Francis DeBernardo, head of New Ways Ministry, said such concepts are outdated, misinformed and ignore contemporary science on factors beyond visible genitalia that determine gender.

“Gender is also biologically determined by genetics, hormones and brain chemistry – things not visible at birth,” DeBernardo said in a statement. “People do not choose their gender, as the Vatican claims, they discover it through their lived experiences.”

He said the Catholic Church should encourage this process of discovery, saying it’s “a process by which individuals discover the wonderful way that God has created them.”
Pope Francis names for first time in Vatican history female members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.