The first woman employed by the Vatican

[Locutus]

In a brilliant and well-researched article in the Italian daily, Il Foglio, of 16 April 2011, Paolo Rodari recalled the figure of Hermine Speier. Born in 1898, the Jewish-German archaeologist came to Rome in 1928, and Pope Pius xi brought her to the Vatican in 1934, “to put the photographic archives of our museums in order”. Speier subsequently dedicated to those Vatican Museums the first volume of a basic “Guide to the public collections of classical art in Rome” (Führer durch die offentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom).

Altogether, Speier published four volumes between 1963 and 1972. The books appeared as the fourth edition of the popular work by Wolfgang Helbig (1891, 1899) which had previously been reprinted in 1912-1913 by Walther Amelung, Emil Reisch and Fritz Weege.

Rodari sketches a well-rounded portrait of this “woman who was full of life and vitality”, a new and atypical figure in the world of the Vatican at that time, closed to women, by drawing on the testimony of those who knew her, such as Oriol Schädel, the director of the Libreria Herder German publishing house in Rome, and Gudrun Sailer, journalist of the German programme of Vatican Radio (who recently gave a detailed reconstruction of the life of Speier to the National Geographic Channel’s documentary, “Vatican: Hidden World”).

Speier has also left her mark in Roman memoirs of the 20th century, from Römische Memoiren by Ludwig Pollak (Rome, L’Erma di Bretschnieder, 1994) to Storia della mia vita by Hubert Jedin (Brescia, Morcelliana, 1987). Jedin was the great historian of the Council of Trent, whose closest German friends in Rome were Ludwig Curtius (1874-1954) and Speier.

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https://catholicismpure.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/the-first-woman-employed-by-the-vatican/




related:

Number of women working in the Vatican rises

Number of women working in the Vatican rises - Vatican Insider


Women's Day 2015: More Women Employed At The Vatican, But Only Two Hold Top Positions

 

[Spade]

Vatican event tackles women's equality, inclusion, ordination | National Catholic Reporter

From the article:

"We are told that the question of ordination is ruled out," said Beattie, a noted theologian at the University of Roehampton in London.
"If we're asked to accept that and respect it, we have to see that in every single other situation, there is full and equal participation of women's leadership in the church -- that every single position that does not require ordination is equally filled by men and women," she said.
"What I would dream is a church that proclaims the full equality and dignity of male and female as made in the image of God should be an absolute beacon to the world," Beattie said.
Relating on a personal note, she continued: "Our daughters look at us and say, 'Mum, why on earth would you hang on in a church like that where everywhere else but the church you are recognized and valued for who you are?' "
"The dream would be that the dignity and the equality that we have being made in the image of God were the face that the church presents to the world," Beattie said. "And that would have to be an absolutely fully equal face in every aspect of the church for that to be credible."

Coincidentally...
O'Ree became NHL's first black player 52 years ago - NHL.com - Hockey is for Everyone

 

[Locutus]

still pretty nifty it was a woman, a non-Catholic woman and a Jewish woman ta boot.

 

[Spade]

still pretty nifty it was a woman, a non-Catholic woman and a Jewish woman ta boot.

Mighty broad minded of the Vatican.

 

[Locutus]

heh, you said broad.

 

[Spade]

Damn! Forgive me.