Pope appoints first woman to head Church academy...

Pope John Paul appointed US professor Mary Ann Glendon to head a Vatican academy yesterday, the first time a woman has chaired such an important group within the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican said in a statement that Glendon, a professor of law at Harvard Law School, would lead the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

The academy is a consultative body that advises the Pope on issues the Vatican wants to take a stand on.

Its broad brief includes subjects such as the ethical impact of globalisation and technological advances, but its advice is non-binding.

News of Glendon's appointment came two days after the Roman Catholic Church named the first female theologians as Vatican consultants.

Sister Sara Butler of Chicago's University of Saint Mary of the Lake and Barbara Hallensleben of Fribourg University in Switzerland were appointed to the International Theological Commission - an influential advisory board for the Vatican.

The appointments place Glendon, Butler and Hallensleben among the highest-ranking women in the Church.

Men hold all the top jobs in the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy. The main senior posts for women in the Church are as heads of orders of nuns.

Polish-born Pope John Paul has forcefully reaffirmed Catholic tradition on the role of women within the Church, rejecting the possibility of female priests and declaring in 1994 that the issue was definitively closed.

Glendon, who is married with three children, is an expert on international human rights and was head of the Vatican Delegation to the United Nations' Women's Conference in 1995.

She has sat on the Social Sciences Academy since its creation in 1994.