Pope Leo XIV has rectified a technical glitch in a Vatican law, an issue that arose after Pope Francis named the first woman to head the Vatican City State administration.
The 2023 law was amended to remove a reference stating the president of the Vatican City State administration must be a cardinal. This change follows Pope Francis’s February appointment of Sister Raffaella Petrini, a 56-year-old Italian nun, as president of the city state.
Her appointment marked the first time a woman had governed the 44-hectare territory in the heart of Rome, aligning with Francis’s 12-year papacy of elevating women to top Vatican decision-making roles.
But the appointment immediately created technical and legal problems that hadn’t existed before because Petrini’s predecessors had all been priestly cardinals.
For example, Petrini wasn’t invited to deliver the economic status report of the Vatican City State to the closed-door meetings of cardinals in spring that preceded the May conclave that elected Leo.
Normally, the cardinal-president of the Vatican City State would have delivered the briefing. But those pre-conclave meetings, known as general congregations, are for cardinals only.
In changing the law Friday to allow a non-cardinal to be president of the Vatican administration, Leo suggested that Petrini’s appointment was not a one-off. He wrote that the governance of the territory was a form of service and responsibility that must characterize communion within the church hierarchy.
“This form of shared responsibility makes it appropriate to consolidate certain solutions that have been developed so far in response to governance needs that are proving increasingly complex and pressing,” Leo wrote.
Petrini’s office is responsible for the main revenue sources funding the Holy See coffers, including the Vatican Museums, but it also handles the infrastructure, telecommunications and healthcare for the city state. The Vatican City State commission she heads is responsible for approving laws governing the territory, and approving the annual budgets and accounts.
The Catholic Church reserves the priesthood for men. While women made strides in reaching top management jobs in the Vatican during Francis’ pontificate, there was no movement or indication that the all-male hierarchy would change rules barring women from ministerial ordination.
