They are the first females members and the first non-clerics to be appointed to the Congregation.

The three women appointed are:

• Linda Ghisoni, who is a professor of canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University and an undersecretary in the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life. She is also a judge at the First Instance Court of the Vicariate of Rome and is a professor of law at Roma Tre University;
• Michelina Tenance, professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, is a consecrated woman. Among her various achievements and posts, Francis appointed her to the commission to study the female diaconate in 2016;
• Laetitia Calmeyn, lecturer of theology at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris. Her ministries include working as a palliative care nurse, a retreat organizer for youth, and a Catholic religion teacher. She has a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical John Paul II Institute in Rome.

Other new appointees are:

• Father Sergio Paolo Bonanni, professor of theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University;
• Father Manuel Jesús Arroba Conde, dean of the Institutum Utriusque Iuris at the Pontifical Lateran University.

The Congregation promotes and defends the doctrine of the faith and its traditions in all of the Catholic world.

Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer leads the Congregation.

Source

• Crux Now
• La Croix
• Image: The Irish Catholic

Professor Gabriella Gambino is the undersecretary for the section for life, while Dr Linda Ghisoni has been appointed to to the section for the laity.

Gambino has a doctorate in bioethics from the Institute of Bioethics at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome.

She is the adjunct Professor of Bioethics at the Faculty of Philosophy and is a researcher and associate professor in Philosophy of Law at the Faculty of Law at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

In addition, she is a professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and Family at the Lateran University. She has written numerous publications on the themes of life, marriage and family.

Ghisoni has a doctorate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Gregorian University and a diploma as Rotary lawyer from the Studium rotale of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. She also has a diploma in administrative practice at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

At present Ghisoni is a judge at the Tribunal of First Instance of the Vicariate of Rome, a professor at the Faculty of Canon Law of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and is a lecturer in the Department of Law of the University Roma Tre. She is the author of several scientific publications on canon law.

From 2013 to 2016 she collaborated with the Pontifical Council for Laity in the field of specialist laity studies in the Church.

Among other roles, Ghisoni has served as Judge of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota and as a member of the Commission for the Defence of the Bond in the causes of the annulment of unconsummated marriage at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

The Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life officially began its work in September last year. It replaced the former Pontifical Council for the Laity and Pontifical Council for the Family, which were dissolved.

Source

• Ansa en Vatican
• The Tablet
• America Magazine
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Zenit