VATICAN (SE): The hairline crack in the Vatican glass ceiling crept a bit when Pope Francis appointed two women as undersecretaries in the new dicastery for Laity, Family and Life on November 7.
 
Gabriella Gambino, a professor from the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute, will be the undersecretary for the section on life and Linda Ghisoni, who is now a judge on the marriage tribunal for the Rome archdiocese, will be undersecretary for the section on the laity.
 
La Croix reported that the office, created at the suggestion of the Council of Cardinals as one of the first major steps in the anticipated reform of the Roman Curia. Gambino is an expert on bioethics and received her doctorate from the University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. 
 
Ghisoni holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University. She has worked for tribunals of the Rome archdiocese and the Roman Rota, as well as with the Congregation for Divine Worship. She is married with two children.