Raffaella Petrini

About

Raffaella Petrini (born 15 January 1969) is an Italian Catholic religious sister who has served as president of the Pontifical Commission and Governorate of Vatican City State since March 2025. She was previously the commission’s secretary general from 2021 to 2025. She is the first woman to hold those positions, two of the highest-ranking in the government. She is a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist.

== Biography ==
Raffaella Petrini was born in Rome on 15 January 1969, and graduated with a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali in Rome. She then studied at the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, receiving a master’s degree in organizational behavior in 2001. She entered the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in 2008, earning a licentiate 2011 and a doctorate in 2014. She was later appointed professor there and taught courses in welfare economics and the sociology of economic processes.
From 2005 to 2021, Petrini worked on the staff of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. On 4 November 2021, Pope Francis appointed her secretary general of the Governorate…