Francesca Di Giovanni (born 24 March 1953) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

lawyer who has worked in the Secretariat of State of the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

since 1993. In January 2020 she was appointed by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

to serve as the Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs in the

Section for Relations with States The Section for Relations with States or Second Section of the Secretariat of State is the body within the Roman Curia charged with dealing with matters that involve relations with civil governments. It has been part of the Vatican Secretariat of ...

, becoming the first woman to hold a managerial position in that branch of the

Roman Curia The Roman Curia () comprises the administrative institutions of the Holy See and the central body through which the affairs of the Catholic Church are conducted. The Roman Curia is the institution of which the Roman Pontiff ordinarily makes use ...

Biography

Di Giovanni was born on 24 March 1953 in

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

. She studied law and completed her training as a notary. She then worked in the administration of the international center of the

Focolare Movement The Focolare Movement is an international organisation of spiritual and social renewal and Christian new religious movement that promotes the ideals of unity and universal brother/sisterhood grounded in the Golden Rule. It was founded by then e ...

. On 15 September 1993, she joined the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, where she worked in the field of multilateral relations. Her responsibilities included refugee and migration issues as well as international human rights, communications, private law, the position of women, copyright issues, and tourism. On 15 January 2020,

appointed her an Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs in the

of the Secretariat of State. She is the first woman and the first lay person to hold a managerial position in the Secretariat of State, a position normally reserved for a member of the clergy. Her responsibilities include the Holy See's interests in intergovernmental organizations and international treaties, while the bilateral sector is headed by another undersecretary, Mirosław Wachowski, a Polish cleric. In 2023 she retired from service to the Holy See on her seventieth birthday. She described her appointment thus "It was a novelty that surprised me greatly: it had never happened that a lay person, let alone a woman, was called by the Pope to this service."

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Giovanni, Francesca Di Living people 1953 births 20th-century Italian lawyers 20th-century Italian women lawyers 21st-century Italian lawyers Italian Roman Catholics 21st-century Italian women lawyers Jurists from Palermo Women officials of the Roman Curia