Pope Francis Daily

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Women — lay and religious — make up
almost 20 percent of the Vatican workforce, and a group of them have formed an
association designed as a forum for collaboration, sharing and outreach.

“D.VA” — for “Donne in Vaticano” —
“Women in the Vatican” — was approved as an association by the
Vatican City governor’s office in September, according to a press release
issued Dec. 7.

So far, about 50 women have joined the association that a
dozen Vatican employees started organizing several years ago. They say 750
women — 19 percent of the Vatican work force — are eligible to join.

The female employees include two undersecretaries — Flaminia
Giovanelli of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and Sister Nicoletta
Spezzati, a member of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, who works at the
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic
Life. Natasa Govekar, a theologian, serves as director of the new
theological-pastoral department of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications,
and Paloma Garcia Ovejero is assistant director of the Vatican press office.

In addition, the Vatican communications’ apparatus includes
many female journalists, and women scholars and restorers work at the Vatican
Library, Secret Archives and Museums.

Organizers said D.VA is not a union or a pressure group, but
is a “network of friendship, exchange and solidarity among all for human
and professional growth.”