1st Female director of Vatican office in spotlight this weekend

The prefect of the dicastery that is in charge of religious, Sister Simona Brambilla (the first ever woman to lead a dicastery, named last January), spoke to us about the challenges of this global gathering, which is including several meetings with Pope Leo XIV.

First, more than 16,000 pilgrims — men and women religious, consecrated virgins, and even hermits — from about 100 countries, are in the Eternal City on October 8 and 9. Participants have attended Mass with Leo XIV this morning, October 9, in St. Peter's Square.

During these two days, workshops on “dialogues with the city” are also planned in various squares in Rome. The consecrated men and women wanted to involve the Italian capital in the themes of “peace, listening to the cry of the little ones, care for creation, and universal fraternity,” said Sister Simona Brambilla, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, to I.MEDIA.

The religious will offer moments of celebration and reflection “through images, music, dance, and words, as well as moments of prayer in various languages in several churches.”

While the Catholic Church has faced a steady decline in the number of religious in recent decades, the dicastery intends to highlight their faithful presence “in the most diverse regions of the world and in the most varied contexts and cultures.”

Sister Brambilla cites the work of consecrated men and women “in the educational journeys of children, adolescents, young people, and adults; in the approach to the integral care of the person and the community; in the peripheries as well as in urban centers, cities, rural areas, and the most remote corners of the planet; in places of fracture, suffering, and conflict; in everyday realities, in the digital world, and on the paths of intercultural and interreligious dialogue."

In the West, many communities are threatened by the challenge of secularization. According to the latest statistics, in 2022, the figures showed a decrease of 9,730 religious sisters in one year, mostly in Europe. There were a total of 49,414 male religious (non-priests) and 599,228 female religious worldwide, compared to 814,779 female religious in 1998.

But “the creativity of the Spirit is inexhaustible, including in the awakening of new charisms and new ways of living out consecration,” emphasizes the Italian sister, the first woman to be appointed head of a dicastery of the Roman Curia.

Her dicastery is responsible in particular for promoting and supervising “new forms” of consecrated life, which will be the subject of reflection during the rest of this jubilee.

From October 9 to 12, the jubilee will continue with a second phase: the dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life will offer various initiatives for 4,000 pilgrims. On October 10, they will participate in a morning of dialogue in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, during which they will meet Leo XIV.

One of the planned conferences will address “new forms of consecrated life,” new types of consecration not provided for in the Code of Canon Law. These experiences “do not fit, without constraint, into one of the already established forms, namely: religious institutes, secular institutes, societies of apostolic life that assume the evangelical counsels, the eremitical life, and consecrated virginity,” explains Sister Simona Brambilla.

While these realities are “a gift to be welcomed,” they also represent a commitment, the prefect continues. Her dicastery, which oversees the approval and regulation of these new forms of consecration, wishes to bring “serious attention to discernment” and “attentive care in accompaniment.”

To conclude these jubilee days, consecrated men and women are invited to Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter's Square at 10:30 a.m. for the “Jubilee of Marian Spirituality.”