Pope appoints woman to top-level management position

Pope Leo XIV appointed Sister Alessandra Smerilli to the Holy See Hierarchy Tuesday, marking one of his first major appointments of a woman to the Catholic Church’s central governing structure. Smerilli, an academic and economist from Italy, will head the Vatican office that focuses on migrants and refugees, according to the Vatican. Smerilli, who currently serves in the No. 2 position in the office, is set to take over the prefect’s top-level management position in September. She will replace the retiring Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny. The Pope has also appointed Cardinal Fabio Baggio as a pro-prefect to serve alongside Smerilli.

Smerilli also works as an economics professor at Auxilium Pontifical Faculty of Educational Sciences in Italy and has a doctorate from East Anglia University in the United Kingdom.

Pope Leo previously appointed a woman to a high-level position earlier this month. He promoted María Montserrat Alvarado, a lay or non-ordained member of the church, to the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication. Smerilli marks the third female prefect appointed to the central governing structure, according to Omnes Magazine.