For the first time, women will serve on the Vatican body that proposes the selection of new bishops for the pope's approval.
Dr. Maria Lia Zervino is one of them, and will also be the first laywoman to serve in the Vatican's Dicastery of Bishops.
MARIA LIA ZERVINO
Member, Dicastery for Bishops
It's logical that in the process of selecting bishops, women must be from the beginning to the end, because we are part of the people of God.
As president of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations, known as WUCWO, the Argentinean represents some 8-10 million women from 100 Catholic organizations in more than 50 countries around the world.
She says her role gives her a global perspective on Catholic women which makes her input in the selection of bishops invaluable to the Pope.
MARIA LIA ZERVINO
Member, Dicastery for Bishops
I think I can bring the feelings of those women, what they dream for their bishops, what they need from their bishops.
I know that Pope Francis wants to listen to WUCWO's women.
Dr. Zervino will serve alongside two other women in the Dicastery of Bishops. While their nomination is a major step forward for the role of women in the institutional church, she views it as a benefit for the entire Church.
MARIA LIA ZERVINO
Member, Dicastery for Bishops
It's not something to win some spaces of power for us women, no, it's something that we can serve, that we can give, the special skills of women in this service, but integrated with the other members of the Dicastery. That's why we will benefit the whole Church.
After Pope Francis' historic move to include the voice of women in one of the Vatican's most central departments, Dr. Zervino hopes the worlds bishops will follow suit, and appoint women to lead ministries in their home church communities.
MARIA LIA ZERVINO
Member, Dicastery for Bishops
New ministers that we need in the Church, the minister of listening, the minister of healthcare.
Ministers, in which women are as able as men, sometimes could do it better also, and lay women are to serve in all those cases around the world.
Beyond the Dicastery, the Vatican's new apostolic constitution also specifies that “members of the people of God” from relevant dioceses will also engage in the process of selecting bishops in “appropriate” ways.
JM
