Our Congregational Leader, Sr Mary T. Barron, has been appointed as a Consultor to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. This new role, announced last week by Pope Leo XIV, crowns decades of missionary, congregational, and international leadership, and reflects the esteem in which she is held at the heart of the Church.
Sr Mary’s appointment flows naturally from her experience in Africa, her service within Vatican structures, and her prominent participation in the Synod on Synodality under Pope Francis.
Sr Mary T. is a native of Drumoghill/Galdonagh in Co. Donegal, in the Diocese of Raphoe. Before taking up leadership in Rome, she lived and worked in Nigeria and Tanzania. Her ministry included pastoral work, education, youth ministry, women’s empowerment, and HIV/AIDS-related projects. She later served in mission animation and inter-congregational mission fora, including SEDOS, contributing to shared reflection on mission in changing global contexts.
Consultor to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue
Earlier this month, Pope Leo XIV appointed Sr Mary T. Barron as one of nineteen new Consultors to the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue. The dicastery is responsible for the Church’s relations with followers of non-Christian religions, with Judaism addressed by a separate dicastery.
The appointment is a significant moment for our congregation and for Sr Mary’s home diocese. Consultors are experts drawn from both clerical and lay backgrounds who provide research, advice, and informed counsel to the dicastery’s Members. Their role is advisory, helping to shape initiatives, documents, and approaches that reflect the Church’s global reality and diverse contexts.
The Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue traces its origins to the Secretariat for Non-Christians established by Pope Paul VI in 1964. Today, it serves as the Church’s principal body for promoting and overseeing relations with members and groups of non-Christian religions worldwide.
The dicastery works to ensure dialogue is conducted “with an attitude of listening, esteem and respect” and encourages relationships aimed at promoting peace, freedom, social justice, protection of creation, and shared spiritual and moral values. Structurally, it comprises a decision-making body of Members, mainly cardinals and bishops, and an advisory body of Consultors chosen for their experience, expertise, judgement, and capacity to contribute to the Church’s mission across cultures and faith traditions.
Synodal work and Vatican service
Sr Mary’s appointment builds on her earlier nomination, in 2024, as a member of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), where she contributes to missionary reflection at universal level.
She was also a key figure in the Synod on Synodality (2021–2024) as one of the delegates of the International Union of Superiors General with full participation. Throughout the synodal process, she consistently highlighted how women religious, living close to the poor and displaced, can help the Church learn to listen and discern together. Her reflections emphasised a global sisterhood of consecrated life, the need for mutual support among congregations, and the importance of including women’s voices in the Church’s discernment and governance.
Relationship with Pope Francis
During the pontificate of Pope Francis, Sr Mary emerged as a recognised voice for women religious and for missionary congregations, particularly through her service on the UISG Executive and as UISG President from 2023 until the 2025 Delegates’ Assembly. She has spoken publicly of her deep gratitude for Pope Francis’ support for women religious, interpreting the appointment of women, including her own appointment to the Dicastery for Evangelization, as a sign of trust and encouragement.
Pope Francis’ broader reform of the Curia, which explicitly opens leadership and advisory roles to qualified lay people and religious, provided the context in which her expertise as a missionary sister was first recognised in evangelisation and is now recognised in interreligious dialogue.
A missionary perspective on dialogue
Sr Mary’s long experience in African contexts, where Christians, Muslims, and followers of traditional religions live side by side, gives her a grounded and pastoral understanding of interreligious encounter as part of daily life rather than an abstract exercise.
Her public engagement during the 2025 abductions of students and staff from St Mary’s schools in Papiri, Nigeria, demonstrated her commitment to non-violence, dialogue, and the mobilisation of international solidarity across Church and society.
As a Consultor, she brings to the dicastery a perspective on dialogue that prioritises listening, mutual respect, protection of the vulnerable, and the shared pursuit of peace and justice among peoples of different faiths — a perspective shaped by proximity to vulnerable communities and by sustained engagement across religious and cultural boundaries.