A laywoman has been promoted to a senior Vatican post for the first time in over three decades.
Flaminia Giovanelli, 61, becomes undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Vatican department that deals with issues of justice, peace and human rights. She is the first woman ever to serve in the post, which had been vacant for four years, and will be the second highest ranking woman in the Curia, the Vatican hierarchy.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, of Ghana, the head of the Council since last October, said the appointment of Ms Giovanelli by Pope Benedict XVI "demonstrates the concern of the church for the promotion of the dignity and rights of women in the world," which is one area of special concern to his office.
Cardinal Turkson, 62, former Archbishop of Cape Coast, who is seen by some as a potential future black contender for the papacy, noted that the late John Paul II had also stressed the need for a 'fuller and meaningful participation of women in the development of society'.”
Ms Giovanelli, who is Italian, was brought up in Brussels in a family of diplomats. She holds a degree in political science from Rome University and another in religious studies from the Pontifical Gregorian University, and has worked at the Council for thirty six years dealing with development and poverty issues.
Sister Rosanna Enrica, a Salesian nun, is undersecretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The last woman to serve as an undersecretary at a pontifical council was Rosemary Goldie, an Australian, who held the post from 1966-76 at the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Ms Giovanelli told Vatican Radio that her work on behalf of the poor and the Third World was "more than a job, it is a vocation...we feel the joy and the suffering of the world, minute by minute". Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, noted that only a fifth of Vatican employees were women, most of them in positions "subordinate to men" despite the fact that many were highly qualified.