In his weekly address last week, Pope Francis put women front and center.
“The first witnesses of the resurrection are women,” he said. “This is beautiful and this is the mission of women, of mothers and women, to give witness to their children and grandchildren.”
The reference brought the praise of many, but only worry from traditionalists, who fear that the pontiff could take steps to ordain women.
For Sister Simone Campbell, who leads “Nuns on the Bus,” a Catholic campaign for social justice, the new pope is reason for cautious optimism.
“I must say that my hope has continued to be raised by all the experiences in this very short time,” he told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Wednesday. “But I also have to say that there's a part of me that's very nervous, waiting for the other shoe to drop, because I do worry about him and his capacity to make change to quickly, because there are those pressures that push against him.”
Watch Christiane Amanpour's full interview with Sister Simone Campbell in the video above.
CNN’s Juliet Fuisz produced this piece for television.