Who is Sister Raffaella Petrini from today first woman president of the Vatican Governorate

From today the state of the Vatican city has a woman as President of the Governorate, that is the organ that exerts executive power in the stateand the Pontifical Commission, the supermine that deals with approving its laws. A radical change for a state that has always had men in appointments, generally cardinals. Sister Raffaella Petrini He takes the place of the Spanish Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, who turned 80 years old and, therefore, in retirement age. But that is not surprising, accustomed to the pink appointments of Pope Francis. Rather, it sounds an important change in a critical moment for the Holy See, with a pontiff hospitalized for over ten days at the Gemelli Polyclinic for a serious respiratory crisis that is trying to solve. Francesco himself had anticipated this appointment last January 19, during the interview a What time does it dothe TV format conducted by Fabio Fazio out of nine.

“We women are different”

The appointment of the religious is also symbolic for the month chosen to enter office, that is March. On the occasion of International Women’s Day in 2023, Petrini herself had held a speech at the University of the Holy Cross in Rome, defining women as complementary to men: «Women are not better or worse than men. We are different, and even complementary “. Diversity has so far been one of the coordinates chosen by Pope Francis to govern the Roman Catholic Church. So far in eleven years of pontificate there are many women who hold top positions, Petrini is the last of a series of important appointments. Before her, Sister Alessandra Smerilli, appointed secretary of the Dicastery for the service of full human development, a few days member of the newborn Commissiono de dononionibus pro sancta venuethe Permanent Commission Commission dedicated to the collection of donations and offers for the Holy Church. Among the religious, there are Sister Nathalie Bucquart, Undersecretary at the Synod of Bishops, from 2019 Consultant for the Synod of the Bishops. And Sister Carmen Ros Nortes, Undersecretary to the Dicastery for institutes of consecrated life and the apostolic life companies.

Is it right to talk about pink quotas?

Outside the enclosures of religious orders, they stand out Barbara Jattadirector of the Vatican Museums, the bioethasticist Gabriella Gambino, undersecretary of the Vatican Dicastery for the laity, the family and life, and Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchof, deputy ordinator of the Council for the economy and the Pasionaria theologian Emilce Cuda, from 2022 secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Dicastery for the Bishops. Even the Vatican has its pink quotas, then? In recent years, Francesco has prompted a lot to because a change also passed from the increase in the female presence in the state machine of the Holy See. But not only that, because the hope is cultural. In Let’s go back to dreaming (Piemme, 2020), Francesco invites to “create spaces in which women can take leadership in a way that allows them to shape culture and guarantee that they are enhanced, respected and recognized”. In 2023 the site Vatican News He reported that the women employed in the Vatican were over 1,100, with a percentage increase that went from 19 to 23.4% in ten years.

An international vocation

Roman born in 1969, Raffaella Petrini belongs to the religious order of the Franciscan nuns of the Eucharistfounded in the United States in 1973 by two religious detached from the branch of the Franciscan nuns of the perpetual adoration of La Crosse, in Wisconsin. An international address that in the mission of religious with the Franciscan dress and the black veil. Sister Petrini, graduated in Political Science from the Luiss University of Rome and in Social Sciences from the Pontifical University of San Tommaso d’Aquino, the International University of Rome known as “Angelicum”, has PoI studied in the United States Science of Organization Behavior. Returning to the Angelicum in Rome, he taught the economy of welfare and sociology of economic processes at the Faculty of Social Sciences before entering the Vatican in 2005 as an officer of the Congregation for Evangelization. In 2021 his appointment as a general secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican City. Expert of welfare policies, Petrini has deepened the ethical and moral implications of the economies implemented as well as the impact of artificial intelligence. Convinced that ethics is the other implication of the choices that an individual makes in a democracy, over the years Petrini has investigated the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, asking for greater control by the States.

But is it right to call it a leader?

From today Sister Raffaella Petrini occupies a very high relief position in the Vatican City State. But the first not to feel at ease with the term of leader is herself. In his studies, rather, the religious has deepened the concept of leadership of care, that is, a leadership style that aims to be the well -being of people. He spoke widely in a lectio held at the Nanovic Institute at the University of Notre Dame in 2023. Starting from the dilemma of human freedom that the Polish sociologist Zygmunt Bauman placed in the choice between competition and solidarity, he underlined that real leadership always puts the personal care in the social and relational dimension, including spiritual. It is not enough to guarantee the development (economic or social) to exercise good leadership, because – explains Petrini – there is a need for a virtue, that is, the improvement of people’s quality of life.

The community at the base

Raised in a religious order, for Sister Petrini the community is the keystone of our society. It is the connection with others – and, of religious reflection, to God – which allows to promote real social well -being. Another key word of Petrini’s thought is the concept of social friendship, that is, the real dimension of a civil coexistence. The full human development promoted by Pope Francis in his social encyclicals, the All brothers and the Laudato yesis such when it is based on a friendly coexistence. Petrini does not fear to call it “fraternity” because, as explained on the magazine blog The kingdom: «If it is in the field of law that equality and freedom are protected, competition and rivalry may also feed here, while The primary place of the gift and gratuity remains the field of friendship, Where men and women can move together by justice towards charity, aware of their shared fragility ». Admitting that you are fragile is – for Raffaella Petrini – the first step to create a fair company. Because “true poverty – he says – is that of isolation”.