Irish sister to be president of Pontifical Mission Societies

Sr Barron, 57, was appointed president of the Pontifical Mission Societies and adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelisation’s section responsible for missionary territories, the Vatican announced on October 8. She will take up the role on January 4, 2027.

The Donegal native is well-known among the world’s more than 600,000 religious sisters. She was previously the head of the International Union of Superiors General, or UISG, which represents the heads of women’s religious congregations worldwide, and since 2018 has been the superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, a religious congregation founded to establish missions in Africa. 

Before being posted in Rome, she had served as a missionary in Nigeria and Tanzania working in women’s empowerment, pastoral work and HIV/AIDS-related projects. 

Sr Barron said that her appointment is “a recognition of the countless women, religious and lay, who have dedicated their lives to proclaiming the Gospel and serving God’s people in every corner of the world”.

Her appointment is the third nomination of a woman to lead a major Vatican office by the Pope. He previously named former EWTN News president Maria Montserrat Alvarado to lead the Vatican’s communications department and Salesian Sr Alessandra Smerilli to head its social justice office.  

The appointment of Sr Barron fills a vacancy left open since March 2025 when the former head of the mission societies was moved by Pope Francis to work in the office which governs Vatican City.

Sr Barron drew attention during the 2024 Vatican synod assembly when she said that, regarding the possibilities for women’s leadership in the Church, “we’re actually quite ignorant of what is possible at the moment” and that one of the synod’s objectives was to “share the possibilities that are open to women for governance, leadership roles within the Church”.

World Mission Sunday is on October 18.

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Pope names Irish sister to lead Vatican’s missionary efforts (By Justin McLellan/National Catholic Reporter)