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pope francis appoints Sister Simona Brambilla as first woman prefect in Vatican

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Pope Francis kisses the baby Jesus as he presides over an Epiphany mass in St.Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican on 6 January 2025. © Alessandra Tarantino/Copyright 2025 The AP. All rights reserved

Pope Francis announced that a 59-year-old Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, would serve as prefect for one of the most important offices in the Vatican.

Sister Brambilla will oversee every religious order — from the Jesuits and Franciscans to smaller newer movements — in an office known as the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

Pope Francis reformed the Holy See’s founding constitution, allowing laypeople, including women, to head a dicastery and become prefects. He also asserted that the Catholic Church should be more sympathetic toward members of the LGBTQ+ community.

However, the pontiff has also upheld the ban on female priests and dampened hopes of women being ordained as deacons.

Although women have been named number two in certain Vatican offices, Sister Brambilla’s appointment marks the first time that a woman serves as prefect of a dicastery or congregation within the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.

Given that a prefect must be able to celebrate Mass and perform sacramental functions — which can only be done by men — Pope Francis simultaneously named Salesian Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime as a co-leader, or “pro-prefect” of Sister Brambilla’s religious order.

A member of the Consolata Missionaries religious order, Sister Brambilla will succeed the retiring Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, who is 77 years old.

A nurse, Sister Brambilla worked as a missionary in Mozambique and led her Consolata order as superior from 2011 to 2023, when Pope Francis made her secretary of the religious orders department.

An evolving position for women in the Catholic women

Catholic women do much of the church’s work in schools and hospitals, as well as working to pass down faith to future generations. However, many complain of second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men.

During Pope Francis’ papacy, the number of women in leadership positions rose from 19.3% in 2013 to 23.4% today, according to statistics reported by Vatican News. In the Curia alone, the percentage of women is 26%.

Among other women holding leadership positions is Sister Raffaella Petrini, the first-ever female secretary general of the Vatican City, responsible for the territory’s health care system, police force and Vatican museums.

Sister Alessandra Smerilli from the development office is another woman serving as an undersecretary, while several other women have been appointed to similar positions, such as French nun Sister Nathalie Becquart in the Synod of Bishops’ Office.

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“I Know It Sounds Strange” – Pastor’s Daughter Shares 4 Reasons She Doesn’t Want to Marry A Pastor (Video)

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A pastor’s daughter identified on TikTok as @tinuuuuu4 has sparked reactions online after stating that she cannot marry a pastor.

In a video shared on the platform, she outlined four reasons behind her stance, noting that her decision is based on personal experience and preferences.

According to her, she does not believe she can settle down with someone who is overly religious, as she feels such individuals may struggle with logical or balanced conversations.

She explained that marrying a pastor would likely place her in that situation.

She also mentioned her strong dislike for staying back long hours after church services, a routine she associates with pastors and church leadership, adding that it is not a lifestyle she sees herself adjusting to.

She said …

“Number one, I know it sounds strange, but I do not like overly religious people. Overly religious people are not logical. I don’t know how to explain it. I like to have logical conversations, and most times, people that are very, very religious are not very logical.

“Number two, waiting after church. If you are a pastor’s son or a pastor’s daughter or you stay with a pastor, you will be able to relate to this. I hate the fact that I have to wait one hour, two hours after service. I don’t want to do it.

“Number three, members expect a lot from you. They place you in a very high esteem…

“Number four, a lot of overly religious men are very mean people…Some of the interactions I have had with people that are very, very religious, staunch Christians, most times, they are very mean.

“I want to marry a Christian, but I don’t want somebody who is a pastor…I just want somebody that loves God, loves his family, and we are fine.”

Watch the video below …

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP89UTCnK/

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Kwara killings: Nnamdi Kanu jailed for warning against Jihadist incursion into Southern Nigeria – Igbo clerics

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An association of Igbo clergymen, Concerned Igbo Ministers’ Commission, has reacted to the recent killings in Kwara State, saying leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu, was jailed for warning against ‘Jihadist incursion’ into Nigeria’s southern territories.

Over a hundred deaths have been recorded in the attacks on communities in Kwara, believed to have been carried out by Islamist extremists.

In a statement on Friday, President of the Concerned Igbo Ministers’ Commission, Rev. Tony Uzor, expressed regrets that Kanu’s warning about the spread of extremism in the country, particularly into the South, was ignored.

Uzor expressed disappointment that rather than act on Kanu’s warning, Nigerian authorities threw him into jail.

The clergyman faulted the government for going after Kanu, who he said was only armed with microphone, while pampering insurgents and bandits responsible for killing thousands of Nigerians.

According to Uzor, for the Nigerian government, “words are treated as deadlier than weapons, and warnings are punished more harshly than mass murder”.

The Concerned Igbo Ministers’ Commission added that Kanu was arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned because his broadcasts unsettled the status quo that favours the caliphate.

Faulting Kanu’s conviction, the cleric added, “A man who spoke — who warned, provoked, irritated, unsettled — was caged as though he had spilled blood. Meanwhile, blood was actually spilled elsewhere, in industrial quantities, and the nation barely blinked.

“Justice James Omotosho, presiding over the Federal High Court in Abuja, sentenced Nnamdi Kanu to life imprisonment in November 2025 for terrorism charges — inciting violence through his broadcasts and calls for Biafran independence. Kanu, the very man who had long warned of this exact impending doom in Yorubaland: the spread of religious extremism, the unchecked jihadist incursions into Southern territories, the failure to protect communities from the reach of these terrorists. He was convicted not for wielding weapons, but for wielding words that unsettled the status quo.

“Justice Omotosho handed down concurrent life terms, ensuring Kanu rots in isolation at Sokoto Correctional Centre of all places, the seat of the caliphate itself. All while the real killers in Kwara — and countless other places — evade the same zealous pursuit.

“It is apparently safer to wield an AK-47 assault rifle than a microphone — provided the AK-47 aligns with the unspoken hierarchies of power.”

The Igbo clergymen further expressed concern that hundreds can be killed in rural Nigeria by armed groups whose methods and ideology are well known, without any serious response from the government.

The clerics said the Nigerian government has not displayed the same zeal it deployed in going after Kanu and IPOB in efforts to stop killings by Jihadists and Islamic extremists.

The statement added, “The dead are absorbed into statistics and forgotten.
Take Kwara State, where just this week, Islamic terrorists slaughtered at least 170 people in the villages of Woro and Nuku just as Nnamdi Kanu predicted many years back. Gunmen stormed in, executing residents at close range — many bound and shot, others burned alive — for refusing to submit to extremist Sharia rule. Homes razed, shops looted, families shattered. The attackers, linked to genuine terrorist groups from Northern Nigeria and not proscribed, left a trail of mass graves and missing loved ones.

“President Tinubu deployed troops after the fact, blaming jihadists, but where was the same preemptive fury that accompanied Monday sit-at-home civil disobedience?

“But let one man (Nnamdi Kanu) speak inconvenient truths, invoke history, or challenge the emotional comfort of the state, and the system awakens with ferocity tagging him terrorist when he has not killed anyone. Those who kill are managed. Those who speak are crushed.”

The Concerned Igbo Ministers’ Commission accused the Nigerian government of jailing the country’s “prophets” while protecting killers.

According to the group, the government has shown that it is determined to ensure that Nigeria remains one at all cost.

“The stability of the murderous state matters more than the sanctity of life. Preventing uncomfortable ideas is more urgent than preventing funerals.
Silence in the face of killings is preferable to noise in the face of injustice.

“Because a society confident in its moral foundations does not jail prophets and tolerate killers. It does not obsess over speech while normalizing graves,” the statement added.

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Gospel Legend Ron Kenoly Is Dead

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Legendary gospel singer Ron Kenoly has passed away.

His death was confirmed on Monday, February 3, 2026, with tributes pouring in from gospel artistes across the world. He was 81 years old.

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