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| Lady Margaret Archer |
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis
has named a British sociologist to run a pontifical academy, marking the
highest-ranking appointment of a woman in his papacy.
The
Vatican announced Saturday that Margaret Scotford Archer will lead the
Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which produces research to help
the church establish policy.
Francis has made giving women a greater-decision making role in the church a priority of his papacy.
Archer,
71, replaces another woman appointed by John Paul II, Mary Ann Glendon, a
Harvard University law professor and former U.S. ambassador to the Holy
See.
Archer is director of
social ontology center at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale in Lausanne,
Switzerland. She spent much of her career at the University of Warwick
in Britain, and was named to the pontifical academy in 1994.
