Pope Francis has appointed two women to key positions at the Vatican.



The Vatican announced on the 25th local time that the Pope has appointed Raphaella Giuliani as Secretary General of the Archaeological Commission of the Holy See and Antonella Ciarone Alibrandi as Vice Minister of Culture and Education.



The Pontifical Ecclesiastical Archaeological Commission is an organization established with the aim of facilitating the excavation of the Roman Catacombs, the early Christian cemeteries, and other Christian artifacts.



Giuliani's new secretary-general is of Italian origin, and prior to her appointment she worked as a staff member for the Church's Archaeological Commission and has published many of her papers on the Roman Catacombs.



On September 16, the Pope also appointed Secretary-General Giuliani as a professor at the Academy for the Exaltation of the Martyrs, the Pontifical Academy.



The Ministry of Culture and Education was created by Pope Francis in March of this year by merging the Ministry of Culture and Education.



The Ministry of Culture and Education is one of the main departments within the Holy See, promoting relations between the Holy See and world cultures, promoting mutual enrichment, issuing norms defining the standards of Catholic education in a particular culture, and safeguarding the tenets of the Catholic faith.



Italian-born Alibrandi, the new Undersecretary of the Pontifical Ministry of Culture and Education, has been teaching economic law at the Department of Finance and Insurance at the Catholic University of Milan.



Since his accession in 2013, Pope Francis, who seeks to transform and renew the Catholic Church, has consistently appointed women to key positions within the Vatican that have been dominated by men.



In November of last year, the pope appointed the first woman, Sister Rafaella Petrini, to the post of Vatican City Executive Director, and in February, he appointed French-born Sister Natalie Bekar as the secretary general of the Synod of Bishops.



Other women holding high positions in the Vatican include Barbara Yatta, the first female director of the Vatican Museums, and Cristiani Murray, Vatican Deputy Spokesperson.



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