*Sr Simona* Brambilla MC, centre, with Daniele Leggio (Head of the Office for the Promotion and Formation of Consecrated Life, DICLSAL), Sr Carmen Rose Nortes NSC (Under Secretary of DICLSAL), Anne Walker (National Executive Director of CRA) and Sr Carol Zinn SSJ (Executive Director of LCWR), Fr Alain Ambeault CSV (Executive Director of the Canadian Religious Conference) and Sr Rosemary Rese PSDP (DICLSAL)
*PHOTO: Anne Walker*

Pope Francis has appointed Sr Simona Brambilla MC as the Prefect for the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL), which oversees Religious Institutes, Secular institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life. In addition, many ministerial public juridic persons (MPJPs), of which a significant number are located in Australia, are also overseen by DICLSAL.

This appointment is groundbreaking, as it the first time a woman has been made a prefect in any Vatican office. Some 700,000 consecrated women and men and many canonical stewards of MJPs, the majority of whom are lay men and women, fall within the responsibility of DICLSAL. Sr Simona’s reach and responsibility is vast and important.

Sr Simona previously made headlines in 2023 when she was appointed as Secretary to DICLSAL, which had then marked the first time in Vatican history that a woman was named the ‘number two’ in a Dicastery.

The Italian-born Sister has a background in nursing and holds a licentiate in psychology from Rome's Gregorian University. Since making her final profession in 1999, she has also served as a missionary in Mozambique, and as superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Consolata, serving two terms from 2011 to May 2023, before being selected as one of the first seven female members of DICLSAL by Pope Francis in 2019.

Simona’s extensive and varied experience shines through in the manner in which she listens, seeks to understand, engages and acts. She is warm, open and enquiring. Simona has previously spoken of the importance of synodal relationship, which has been evident in the growing number of consultative requests made to religious and lay leaders from the Dicastery - “We have lived and are living an experience of the Spirit, which impels the Church to walk together, in mutual listening and mutual edification. From this experience, there is no going back.”

Evidencing her commitment to synodality, last year, Sr Simona met with the Executive Directors of national Conferences of Religious (Catholic Religious Australia (CRA), Catholic Religious Canada, and the USA Leadership Conference of Women Religious) for the first time. This was a significant meeting in which DICLSAL engaged in conversation directly with executive directors, who hear regularly from leaders of religious institutes in their countries to provide DICLSAL with a deeper understanding of the hopes and challenges of religious life lived out locally.

Members of CRA’s Executive, and the National Executive Director, met with DICLSAL on numerous occasions, closely with Sr Simona to discuss matters important to Australia’s Religious men and women. Sr. Simona showed particular interest in CRA’s work relating to First Nations Peoples, as explained by Philippa Murphy FDNSC, CRA’s Vice President.

CRA is due to again meet with Simona and her team in March 2025.

With Simona, a religious woman, at the helm of DICLSAL, the Vatican is moving towards synodal governance, in which the voices, gifts, ministries and experiences of religious, especially of women religious who are the majority of religious globally, their lay leaders, as well as the men and women who are canonical stewards of MPJPs, will be heard and valued in the workings and discernment of DICLSAL through this appointment.