By Jose Kavi
New Delhi, Nov 5, 2021: Catholics in India, especially women religious, have applauded Pope Francis for appointing an Italian nun to a key Vatican post. They now urge the Church leaders in India to follow the Pope’s example to bring gender equality.
The Pope on November 4 appointed Franciscan Sister Raffaella Petrini as the secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State.
Bethany Sister Rose Celine Fernandes, head of Catholic nuns in India, says she feels overwhelmed with joy at the great news about the highest ranking woman at the Vatican. She admires the Pope’s “magnanimity to recognize the fullness of potentialities present” in Sister Petrini, who she says is “a replica of all women.”
According to the superior general of the Mangalore-based Bethany Sisters, Pope Francis has recognized that the Church is active and vibrant on account of the committed service of women religious. “We religious feel trusted for our authentic and radical commitment to Jesus and new horizons are opened to us by our Holy Father. We are grateful to our Pope,” added the nun who was in Rome when the appointment was announced.
Presentation Sister Dorothy Fernandes who works among grassroots people in Patna, eastern India, hails the appointment as “truly a historic move and a bold step taken by Pope Francis. He means what he says, and is trying to swim against the current.”
Capuchin Father Suresh Mathew, editor of New Delhi-based Indian Currents weekly, says Petrini’s appointment gives a “glimpse into the changes taking place in the Vatican.” According to him, the Pope’s move is “a benchmark for women religious across the globe to look forward to changes.” He is also happy that the Pope has made “a drastic change’ by stopping the practice of “using nuns as cheap labor” in the Vatican.
Nirmala Carvalho, a Mumbai-based veteran journalist, sees another Vatican glass ceiling being broken in Sister Petrini’s elevation. Pope Francis “wants women to play a bigger role in the Catholic Church” to bring greater gender equality. “Sister Petrini will become one of the most influential women in the Vatican,” predicts Carvalho, who reports for several international media organizations.
Sister Shalini Mulackal, a Delhi-based theology professor, too thinks the Pope has taken steps to bring about gender justice in the Church since his election as the bishop of Rome. “Of course some are unhappy that he did not do much about ordination of women as priests and deacons. But I always felt that he is taking the right steps towards gender equity in the church,” Sister Mulackal, a former president of the Indian Theological Association, told Matters India.
Kochurani Abraham, a feminist theologian in Kerala, finds it encouraging that Pope Francis is bringing in more women to significant positions in the ecclesiastical governing bodies. “All the same, it’s time to go beyond a token representation to having 33 percent reservation of women in Vatican’s governing bodies. Such moves can bring about structural changes which will pave the way for synodality as a new way of being Church,” Abraham asserts.
Joseph Sodder, convener of the Association of Concerned Catholics, while welcoming a woman’s appointment to a senior posting in the Vatican, says “justice would have been done if an Indian was appointed to the post as we have the largest number of women religious in the world.”
India has more than 100,000 Catholic women religious, the largest in the world.
Sister Mulackal finds it unfortunate that the Church in India, especially its leaders are not yet thinking in the same line as the Pope. She hopes the Indian Church leaders “sooner or later wake up and follow the example of Pope Francis and find ways and means of sharing responsibility with women at various levels.”
She said she was disappointed when the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India recently appointed four priests as coordinators of various apostolates. “In fact the role of a coordinator does not require an ordained priest. It could have been a religious sister or a lay person who is competent. The vast majority of the church institutions are run by religious women in this country. In spite of that fact, our leaders never thought of appointing at least one coordinator from among women,” the woman theologian bemoans.
Sister Dorothy Fernandes wants the Church in Asia, especially India, to become bold enough to follow the Pope’s example. “We have very competent women religious who hold responsible posts; they can bring the change we have been yearning for. Give the women Religious a chance; they are endowed with gifts that make them truly compassionate and tender.”
She wants women representation in all decision making bodies of the Institutional Church. “Can we rise to this call? Can we give the third millennium of governance to women? Let us hope that we can rise tall and show the world a new way for inclusiveness.”
Sister Petrini has been serving as an official at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples since 2005. Born in Rome on January 15, 1969, she holds a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum), where she is currently a professor.