(Newswire.net— August 8, 2020) — Pope Francis has appointed six women to the council that controls Vatican’s finances, and among them is Leslie Jane Ferrar, who was in charge of Prince Charles’ finances, The Guardian reports.
By appointing six women to high positions, the pope is trying to fulfill his promise to balance out the relationship between men and women in the Vatican administration.
The previous Economic Council was composed exclusively of men. There are 15 duties in the council, the coordinator is a cardinal, and the other 14 seats are divided between members of the clergy and the laity.
There will now be six women and one man among the laity that composes the council. Along with Ferrar, there is also Ruth May Kelly, who was the Minister of Education and Transport in the British Labor Government from 2004 to 2008. Her devout Catholicism and membership of Opus Dei – a secretive, highly conservative and influential group within the Roman Catholic Church – antagonized campaigners for LGBT and women’s rights.
Kelly rejected calls to break with the Opus Dei saying: “It is a private spiritual life and I don’t think it is relevant to my job,” The Guardian quotes.
The other four come from business and banking sectors.
In January, the pope appointed the first woman to a senior position in the previously male-dominated Vatican’s Secretariat of State, the diplomatic and administrative center.
Italian Francesca Di Giovanni has taken over the newly established position in the Office for Relations with States as Undersecretary and is one of the two Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
The most influential women in the Vatican are the head of the Vatican Museums Barbara Jatta and the deputy head of the public relations office Christine Murray.
Last year, the Pope also appointed the first four women advisers to the Synod of Bishops, an institution established 50 years ago to prepare for important meetings of bishops held on various topics every few years.