VATICAN CORNER
There are about 750 women working in the Vatican which is about one fifth of all Vatican employees, and those women are not doing the cleaning jobs, those jobs are done by men. Most of the women are academics, such as archivists, art historians, office heads and journalists, and the number of women in lead positions is increasing. Pope Francis has insisted on greater decision-making roles for women in the church and that policy has been felt in the Vatican. The film archive department, the maintenance department for the Basilica, and the German edition of the Vatican newspaper are all headed by women. The topic of giving women a greater role has “even” reached the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the body responsible for publishing, and defending Catholic doctrine. A high ranking CDF symposium is planned for the fall of 2016 on the subject of greater roles for women. Also the Pontifical Council for Culture is preparing to form a new body of 25 members made up entirely of women. Their job will be to take a critical look at the Council’s activities. But, of course, this open approach to women has not gained acceptance everywhere in the Vatican. It is still considered “incomprehensible” to have women members for some Vatican groups.
The journalist Gudrun Sailer has studied the history of women working in the Vatican and has written a book entitled “Women in the Vatican Encounters, Portraits, Images”. She found one of the first women to be properly employed by the Vatican was Hermine Speier (1898-1989). In 1934 Speier began her career as head of the Vatican Museums’ Photographic Archive. She had been working for the German Archaeological Institute in Rome, when she was fired due to Hitler’s policy against employing Jews. At the Vatican she began work without a contract and was paid by the day. Her job was to sort out the chaotic collection of thousands of photographs of museum pieces, that had piled up over the years. She did an excellent job, but was forced to take other jobs to make ends meet, giving lessons and reading aloud to a professor of ancient history who had gone blind. Although Speirer converted to Catholicism, she had to hide in a convent during the German occupation of Rome. Her story is about a remarkable first step in bringing women into the Vatican during a time of turmoil and barbarism towards Jews. To be continued …
Sources: brown.edu,ncronline.com, ewtn.com