First Female Vatican Appointment is No Revolutionary — but She Might Challenge Tradition
Di Giovanni may be no revolutionary, but she has the opportunity to carve out a new model for female authority in the Vatican.
Lawyer Dr Francesca Di Giovanni recently became the first female undersecretary in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, making her the first woman to hold such a senior position.
This appointment is the latest of Pope Francis’ efforts to bring more women into decision-making roles within the Vatican. But Di Giovanni has already worked in the self-same Section for Relations with States that she will now lead for almost three decades.
Despite the historic nature of the appointment, Di Giovanni is hardly likely to transform the papacy.
Pope Francis’ appointment will see Di Giovanni coordinate the Secretariat’s multilateral sector, overseeing Vatican involvement with international treaties and intergovernmental bodies, including the United Nations.
An expert in international humanitarian law, Di Giovanni has stated her intention of “asking for changes or reforms [to the UN] where deemed necessary.”
But this ambition is plural, not personal. While an unquestionably accomplished individual herself, Di Giovanni’s “I” is now a “we”. She speaks as part of the Vatican senior circle, a body which is, of course, dominated by men.
In an interview with Vatican News, Di Giovanni was pointedly asked what she thought she would bring to the undersecretary role as a woman — not as an accomplished lawyer with a Vatican career spanning almost thirty years, but as a woman.
In response, Di Giovanni referenced part of Pope Francis’ homily for the new year: “women are givers and mediators of peace and should be fully included in decision-making processes… when women can share their gifts, the world finds itself more united, more peaceful”.
Taken at face value, Pope Francis’ words are encouraging. Women should be fully included in decision-making processes, and the historical burden of the fact that they are not does not fall solely in the lap of the Catholic Church.
Yet these words have a flipside. Marianismo springs to mind: the veneration of virginal qualities in women, such as their capacity to give generously, forfeiting self-preservation for the sake of others, and their docile, calming female nature.
Marianismo stems from Maria — Mary — herself. Veneration of the Virgin Mary constitutes a central pillar of the Catholic faith. She is blessed above all others; her name is celebrated.
But you could say Mary’s life was entirely ruled by men. She was a woman forced to make a dangerous journey by male-driven politics. She had male figures more powerful than her decide how, and when, her body would be used to bear a child. Mary did not control her own life.
So, it’s interesting that Di Giovanni diverged slightly from the Pope’s comments. She agreed that “a woman may have certain aptitudes for finding commonalities, healing relationships with unity at heart”. But she also refused to categorise the qualities Pope Francis praised as being solely the mainstay of women: “they are gifts that I certainly find in my male colleagues as well.”
Yet, beyond this indication of a more modernised approach, there are few signs that Di Giovanni will seek to make waves in her new role. She told her Vatican News interviewer that “I hope not to do it alone: I would like to count on the harmony that has characterised our working group so far.”
And maintaining existing harmony means maintaining the status quo.
If this historic female appointment to the upper echelons of the Vatican is going to make anything more than a superficial mark, Di Giovanni will need to go further than that.
Promoting the tangible influence of women in the male-dominated Catholic Church, as well as holding forth on the UN world stage, will require Di Giovanni’s obvious intelligence and expertise, as well as her bravery. It’s time to focus on these qualities — rather than purely on marianismo — and Di Giovanni herself will need to lead the way.
Di Giovanni may be no revolutionary, but she has the opportunity to carve out a new model for female authority in the Vatican that goes beyond the strictly traditional. Employed correctly, that in itself could set an empowering example for others to follow.
So, Di Giovanni might still prove to be a force for change in an institution which modernises only very slowly.
