3 Women Meet with Pope Francis' Council of Cardinals at the Vatican including a Female Anglican Bishop, a Religious Sister, and a Consecrated Laywoman

Pope Francis held his scheduled meeting with the Council of Cardinals on February 5th, 2024. 
The Holy See Press Office released a statement saying all members of the so-called C-9 were present together with Pope Francis.
Together with the pope, the Council of Cardinals last met on 4 and 5 December 2023 at Casa Santa Marta.

The main theme of the December meeting was the "role of women in the Church", thanks also to the interventions of Sister Linda Pocher, Lucia Vantini, and Father Luca Castiglion, all of them teachers and theologians.

This time, an Anglican female bishop, Jo Bailey Wells, was present. She is married to another pastor and has two children. Wells is the assistant general secretary of the Anglican Communion which brings together 42 churches and was also a participant in the interreligious meeting in Kazakhstan with Pope Francis in September 2022. She is also one of the female experts the Pope invited to the Council meetings to discuss the role of women in the church. Two other women were present at the meeting. Giuliva Di Berardino, a consecrated virgin, and teacher Sister Linda Pocher, who was already present with the Cardinals at the previous meeting. Sr. Linda is a scholar of theology with a focus on women. She is a Salesian and collaborated very closely with the Dicastery of Bishops during the international congress organized in 2022 to reflect on the figure of the priest today.

According to a Holy See statement, on that occasion “the need to listen, also and above all in the individual Christian communities, to the feminine aspect of the Church, so that the processes of reflection and decision-making can enjoy the irreplaceable contribution of women” were recalled.

The Council of Cardinals, after the Pope's renewal of the body on 7 March 2023, is composed of Cardinals Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State; Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the Governorate of Vatican City State; Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Archbishop of Kinshasa; Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay; Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston; Juan José Omella Omella, Archbishop of Barcelona; Gérald Lacroix, Archbishop of Québec; Jean-Claude Hollerich, Archbishop of Luxembourg; Sérgio da Rocha, Archbishop of San Salvador de Bahia. The secretary is Monsignor Marco Mellino, titular bishop of Cresima. The first meeting of the new C9 took place on 24 April.
Pope Francis established the Council with the chirograph of 28 September 2013 with the task of assisting him in the governance of the Universal Church and to study a project for the revision of the Roman Curia, the latter realised with the new Apostolic Constitution Praedicate Evangelium published on 19 March 2022. The first C9 meeting took place on 1 October 2013.