Women and Church Governance: What Pope Francis’s Reform Changed—and What it Left Open

Francisca Pérez-Madrid is Professor of Law and Religion at the University of Barcelona.[1]

Pope Francis once described clericalism as “one of the greatest deformations” in the life of the Catholic Church. It is a strong diagnosis. What is striking, then, is how resistant that clericalism has proven to reform—even after Praedicate Evangelium, the most ambitious overhaul of the Roman Curia in decades.

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Pope Francis and Gender Issues: An Ambivalent Legacy

Martina Bär is professor of fundamental theology at the University of Graz (Austria).

Pope Francis, who passed away on 21 April 2025, made notable strides in addressing women and discrimination within the Catholic Church, though his efforts were often characterized by a balance between progressive appointments and adherence to traditional doctrine.

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Sharia Court Adjudication: Gendered Perspective

Kyriaki Topidi is head of Cluster on Culture and Diversity/senior researcher at the European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI, Germany).

Background: Application of Sharia in Greece

The intensified presence of Muslim groups in Western Europe resulting from recent migration has largely overshadowed reflection, in both political and research terms, on legal pluralist scenarios involving historical Muslim minorities in European countries. In Western Thrace, at the northeastern tip of Greece bordering Turkey, Muslim groups have enjoyed special legal status connected to the legacies of the Ottoman Empire, captured in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.[1] State-endorsed Muslim autonomy in Greece has entailed, in particular, government-appointed muftis with (until 2018 legislative amendments) compulsory jurisdiction in certain family matters.

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