Her name is Sister Raffaella Petrini, she is 59 years old and has a degree in Political Science and a Doctor in Economics. Also a nun. Franciscan, to be exact. And, starting next March, she will become the first president of the Vatican Governorate, replacing the Spanish cardinal Fernando Vérgez, who is retiring when he turns 80.
Petrini will be neither more nor less than the mayoress of the small city-state, which will make her the ‘boss’ of Pope Francis. At least, in administrative matters. The announcement of the nun’s appointment was made by Bergoglio before the microphones of Italian television channel Nueve, during an interview on the program Che tempo che fa. “Women know how to manage better than us,” the Pope stressed before announcing the replacement of Vérgez, which represents another step in the ‘female revolution’ promoted by Francis in the Vatican, and which already had a historic moment on December 6. January, when another nun, Simona Brambilla, became the first female prefect (minister) of the Holy See.
“The work of women in the curias is something that has gone little by little and has been well understood. Now we have many,” the pontiff stressed. A half-truth, because, although in the last two years the presence of women in positions of responsibility has multiplied, the truth is that they barely represent 23.4% of the total. Much more than what happened in previous pontificates, but still not enough. And all this without talking about the doctrinal, where women are still banned from the priesthood, the episcopate or the cardinalate, the latter a position that does not require ordination and that, in purity, could be occupied by a woman without breaking any rule of law. Canonical. Will we see a female cardinal? Some internal sources emphasize that Francis could decide to take this step during the Jubilee of 2025, although it remains a rumor.
The truth is that Sister Raffaella is not new to these issues. Since 2021, she has served as Secretary General of the Interior (the equivalent of deputy mayor) of the Vatican, a body in charge of exercising the executive power of the State. Now he will be your highest authority. This is an entity that runs parallel to the Holy See, whose essential function is to manage and administer the organization of public services, the maintenance of infrastructure and the supervision of daily activities of the city state. In charge are the firefighters, the Vatican Museums, the gas station or the famous Vatican Pharmacy. In total Petrini will manage the day-to-day life of the Vatican’s 600 inhabitants and 2,000 employees.
Before, the nun had already made history, when she became the first woman (along with two other chosen ones) to be part of the Dicastery of Bishops, the body in charge of appointing future bishops around the world, and of which they are part, among others, cardinals Cobo and Omella. His presence in the ‘bishops factory’ caused a great stir at the time, although Petrini had already served as an officer of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples since 2005, a decision of Benedict XVI. It is also part of the APSA (the institution that decides on the Church’s money).
Petrini and Brambilla are the latest standard-bearers for women in positions of responsibility in the Church. Along with them, the director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta, also stands out; the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Emilce Cuda; the deputy director of press of the Holy See, Cristiane Murray; or the undersecretary of the Synod, Nathelie Becquart.
A significant and increasingly numerous presence that, however, continues to put in black and white the existence of profound discrimination against women: an absolute majority in the temples and an exceptional minority in the offices of the Catholic Church.
All information in www.religiondigital.org
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