To the right of the Pope: five "special" women in the Vatican

Despite the many hopes that accompanied the first years of Francis' pontificate, little has changed for women in the Catholic Church, especially at the top of the hierarchy. Their role always remains ancillary to that of men even if there have been, even in recent history, female figures capable of leaving a deep imprint beyond the Tiber.

This is testified by an essay entitled "The women of the popes" (Guerini and Associati-goWare, 2021, pp. 280, also e-book) in which the journalist and expert on Vatican issues Bénédicte Lutaud tells us five protagonists of the history of the papacy of the recent decades.

To clear away any misunderstanding, let's say right away that we are not dealing with the classic tabloid book in which we want to make today's Vatican resemble the Rome of the Borgias. Rather, Lutaud wants to show us how many popes have resorted to the feminine charism in their apostolate.

In the last century, in fact, every pope, from Pius XI (elected in 1922) onwards, has had at least one exceptional woman at his side. Thanks to their silent but irreplaceable presence, the fate of the Catholic world as we know it has often been outlined. In particular, Bénédicte Lutaud presents five figures of refined women, intellectuals and shrewd diplomats, capable of becoming intimate confidants and faithful advisers to the pontiffs in most cases. I am the German Jewish archaeologist Hermine Speier, who escaped the racial laws of Hitler Germany and during the pontificate of Pius X began working at the Vatican Museums, marking their history. Then Sister Pascalina Lehnert, Pius XII's secretary, the first woman to participate in a conclave, is so powerful that she is nicknamed the "Popess". So Wanda Półtawska: Polish resistance fighter, was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps and victim of pseudoscientific experiments. Later, she graduated in medicine and became close friends with Karol Wojtyla.

Then we meet Mother Tekla Famiglietti, who was Pope Wojtyla's best ally in diplomatic matters, in particular on the occasion of the meeting in Cuba between the pontiff and Fidel Castro. The five is closed by the historian and journalist Lucetta Scaraffia, for years a columnist for the Osservatore Romano, of which she founded - during the pontificate of Benedict XVI - and directed the monthly "Donne Chiesa Mondo" from 2012 to 2019.

Five women out of the ordinary, almost superfluous to say, whose portraits offer Bénédicte Lutaud the opportunity to also write a compelling account of the dynamics within the Vatican palaces and of the international relations that bind the Church to the rest of the world, from Rome to Cuba, for Poland, Germany and the United States.

In summary, an engaging investigation, attentive to historical reconstruction and always crossed by a deep spirit of empathy for the five protagonists of the book. An investigation that tackles the female question within the Church from an unprecedented perspective and does so with a lively narrative that is not without irony, especially towards the Roman curia.