Pope Francis warned on Wednesday against a “chauvinist mentality” in the Catholic Church as he promoted a nun to head the executive administration of the tiny Vatican City state.
“People often complain that there are not enough nuns in roles of responsibility in dioceses, the (Roman) Curia and universities. It is true,” the 88-year-old pontiff said.
“We have to overcome the clerical and chauvinistic mentality.”
He highlighted the promotion of Sister Raffaella Petrini, who will take over as president of the Governorate of Vatican City State in March. He is currently the General Secretary.
“Thank God, nuns are ahead and know how to do things better than men,” Francis said at a meeting of the Hilton Foundation, a charitable organization that supports education for nuns.
He said that not enough money has been invested in the education of nuns, “because it is believed that nuns and women are second class.”
Their work “requires trained and capable people”, Francis said, adding: “The mission of nuns is to serve the least fortunate, not to be someone’s servant.”
Campaigners have in the past condemned as “modern slavery” the treatment of nuns employed at the Vatican and elsewhere, who work as unpaid cooks and cleaners in the homes of priests, bishops or cardinals.
Francis earlier this month appointed Sister Simona Brambilla to lead the Vatican office that oversees the world’s Catholic religious orders and congregations.
Francis has been nominating women to more senior positions within the Holy See since becoming head of the world’s roughly 1.4 billion Catholics in 2013, but progress has been slow.
The percentage of women working in the Holy See and Vatican City is expected to rise from about 19 percent in 2013 to 23.4 percent in 2023, according to data published by Vatican News.
However, women still cannot receive holy orders, and repeated demands by some to allow women to become priests have yielded no results.
Some accused the Argentine Pope of having outdated views about women’s roles.
“Don’t forget that they’ve been in charge since the Garden of Eden,” he said Wednesday in reference to the Biblical story of how Adam and Eve were thrown out of Paradise because they disobeyed God’s command not to eat the fruit of the tree. Was violated. of knowledge, and persuaded Adam to eat it too.
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