Italian nun Sister Raffaella Petrini was one of the three women appointed to the Dicastery for Bishops.VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has named three women - two nuns and a lay woman - to a previously all-male committee that advises him in selecting the world's bishops, the Vatican said on Wednesday .
The three women are Sister Raffaella Petrini, an Italian who is currently the deputy governor of the Vatican City, French nun Yvonne Reungoat, a former superior general of a religious order, and Italian lay woman Maria Lia Zervino, president of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organisations. The process starts locally, where bishops suggest to archbishops the names of priests they think would make good bishops. The list then goes to the Vatican nuncio, or ambassador, in a country, who further investigates the person and sends his recommendations to the Vatican.
Apart from Ms Petrini, who as deputy governor is the most powerful woman in the world's smallest state, Pope Francis has already named a number of women, both nuns and lay women, to Vatican departments.