Pope appoints first woman as president of Vatican City State governorate 

CV NEWS FEED // Pope Francis recently announced that he is appointing Sister Rafaella Petrini as president of the Vatican City State governorate, following Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga’s retirement.

Vatican News reports that Pope Francis revealed the appointment in an interview on Nove, an Italian television channel. Sr. Petrini, the first woman to assume the role, will begin her presidency in March.

Pope Francis stated in the interview, “The work of women in the Curia has progressed slowly but effectively. Now, we have many.”

He later added, “At the Governatorate, the Secretary General, who will become President in March, is a nun… Women manage better than we do.”

Sr. Petrini will have executive authority for Vatican City, and is responsible for Vatican CIty’s governmental departments and agencies, including the Corpo della Gendarmeria, the Vatican Observatory, the Vatican Museums, and the Department of Pontifical Villas. In the past, the president of the governorate has typically been a Cardinal.

Sr. Petrini is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, according to AI for Good, and she holds a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (LUISS), a Master of Organizational Behavior degree from the University of Hartford, and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). 

Sr. Petrini later taught Welfare Economics and Sociology of Economic Processes at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Angelicum. She began serving in the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in 2005, and became a member of the Dicastery for Bishops and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See in 2022.

Her appointment comes shortly after Pope Francis appointed Sr. Simona Brambilla as Prefect of the Dicastery for Consecrated Life alongside pro-prefect Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, as CatholicVote previously reported.