Who is in charge of the Church and how is it organized internally?Translation of the article into Italian
What kind of jobs are there in the Vatican?
In the The Vatican is the place where all the work necessary for the government of the Church founded by Christ is carried out. It is also a nation - that is why it is called "Vatican City State"and maintains diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. A basic distinction can be made between the offices required for ecclesiastical government and the work required for the infrastructure of a State.
On the one hand, those who work in the Vatican are those who govern the so-called Dicasteries - the great organs of the Church - and those who administer them. On the other hand, there are those who deal with a wide range of other jobs specific to the Vatican City State. From the management and maintenance of the patrimony, to the museums and everything related to culture, to the attention to tourism, security -including the Swiss Guard- and a multitude of aspects that require attention and maintenance. For example, gardeners, firemen or undertakers, as well as the typical supply and maintenance trades of any developed country.
Who can work at the Vatican?
Vatican employees are mostly clerics working in the Holy See, Swiss Guards and, finally, State officials. Many others, not necessarily laymen or civil servants, and obviously men or women, work in the Vatican even though they reside outside - in Rome or nearby cities. Many are Italian citizens or citizens of nationalities other than Vatican citizens.
The system of government of the Church -referred to as the Roman Curia- is mainly occupied by clerics, as we were saying. There are also certain tasks that support the Curia and are performed by lay people. For example, administrative or managerial work, tasks that do not strictly speaking refer to ecclesiastical government.
The professional qualifications required for all jobs not performed by clerics in the Roman Curia will be those ordinarily required in the civil sphere. In highly specialized areas, such as economics or communications, the need for qualified professionals and managers is growing. Naturally, they will have their own criteria of employability and salaries in line with this condition.
Both the salary and the social benefits are differentiated according to whether one is a cleric or a lay person. And, since St. John Paul II so ordered, special attention has been given to those who have to support their families, with economic benefits especially designed for these personnel.
Are other conditions required to work at the Vatican?
The Vatican regulations - and in particular the General Regulations of the Roman Curia - are very clear in demanding from these employees a series of requirements of alignment with the spiritual mission of the Roman Pontiff and the Church, which transcend the purely technical performance of a job or the technical development of an office.
It has certain requirements of suitability; it demands the commitments expressed in the profession of faith and in the oath of fidelity and observance of the secrecy of office and, for those required, the pontifical secret; it assumes that the employee will observe exemplary moral conduct, including private and family life, in conformity with the doctrine of the Church; and in general the regulations prescribe the prohibition of acting in ways that do not befit an employee of the Holy See.
With specific reference to the work of the laity, it is worth asking whether a civil service system is sustainable for many jobs. Or perhaps a more frequent recourse to the labor market would be preferable. In any case, the Apostolic See has personnel policies that ensure a serious selection of employees, including the aforementioned requirements of personal, moral and religious rectitude. In this way, a dimension of trust is favored for this type of work. As for the laity, as we pointed out above, it provides for the possibility of hiring highly qualified workers who can be attracted, together with ethical bases and an understanding of the ecclesial mission, with salaries comparable to those available in the market for similar services. In short, it is a matter of having upright, well-trained, loyal and hard-working people.
And how does a cleric gain access to work in the Roman Curia?
There are several possibilities for a cleric to work in the Holy See, such as the trust he has with a superior because they coincided in the seminary or in the diocese of origin; to stand out in the studies carried out in the pontifical universities or in general the formation courses offered by the Roman Curia; to be recommended by an ecclesiastical or civil authority to the Apostolic See; or the manifestation of the cleric himself to occupy that work position.
How many people work at the Holy See?
The Vatican has an office whose function is to contribute to the consolidation of the labor community. It deals with those who work in the Roman Curia and in the government of Vatican City as a State, in the agencies or administrative bodies concerned. In addition, it facilitates professional training, with the clear objective of making all such employees aware that they are rendering a service to the universal Church.
According to data from this office contained in the pontifical yearbook of recent years, about 2,000 people work in the Roman Curia, not counting part-time personnel. Of these, slightly more than half work in the dicasteries (tribunals, offices...), another quarter work in other organisms and the last in nunciatures.
Some data that can illustrate to us, to give us an idea of the dimensions of the work we are talking about. The Vatican museums employ about 700 workers; the Secretariat of State employs another 200, of which a quarter are diplomatic personnel; the Vatican Secret Archives and the Vatican Apostolic Library employ about 150 people.
But the Roman Curia is a very modest administration compared to any ministry in a country. For example, in Spain the smallest of its ministries has about 2,000 employees, which is more than the total number of workers in the Vatican.
