Vatican switchboard nuns field growing calls about pope — but no, you can’t speak with him directly

How about Pope Francis? Can you give him my wishes? Can I talk to him directly?

The nuns using the Vatican’s switchboard perform a growing number of calls with such questions as the pope is admitted to the hospital in Rome.

“They feel like kids waiting to know about their father,” says sister Anthony, who performs the operation in a Spartan office, walks away from St. Peter’s. Basil. “We tell them to pray for him.”

The Central Number of the Vatican is public – and the sisters of the pious disciples of the Divine Master make sure that everyone who calls it gets a real person, not the ‘Press 1 for English, 2 for Latin’ version of the automation that has become the norm at major institutions and businesses worldwide.

“This is the Vatican’s voice – a voice that the Vatican, despite the digitization of communication, wants to preserve as a human voice,” says Mother Micaela, the mother of the order.

The pious disciples sisters are part of the 100-year-old Pauline orders, focused on communications, including the landmark Catholic publishing house around the world. In the spring of 1970, they were called to operate the Vatican linkboard and more instructed by the then mother to be a voice that does good, because through the telephone wire it communicates Christ himself. “

Today, with headset about their veils, the sisters cover the phones 12 hours a day, seven days a week, before large monitors showing the country of origin of the incoming call. Gendarmes, the Vatican police, takes the night shift.

About a dozen sisters coming from Italy, the Philippines, Poland and elsewhere, calls from all over the world, mainly in Italian, English and Spanish.

Many callers should just be directed to the right Vatican office or official, and the sisters obliged with the help of massive yearbooks and maps, as well as a thorough knowledge of protocols and a solid dose discretion, said sister Anthony.

Those who ask to ask for financial aid will be taken to the Vatican Almoner’s Office, who recently assisted the victims of War in Ukraine, flooding in Brazil and homelessness in Naples in southern Italy.

On a recent afternoon, at her office chair, decorated with a flowers through the flower box, sister Gabriella made a call from a priest asked to celebrate a mass with other priests as part of his Jubilee Pulpygrima. Since 2025 is a holy year for the Catholic Church, with 32 million pilgrims expected to visit Rome, related calls form a large part of the 50-70 inquiries that the nuns answer daily.

But then there are callers with questions that the sisters cannot just look up or penetrate – those in distress or angry or hopeless.

“We never get a call that is the same as the previous one,” says Sister Simona, who has worked on the switchboard for 15 years.

Francis has built a reputation for the elimination of formalities – from his way of moving on to his personal outreach to the poor and marginalized before his hospitalization – which projects more parogy priest than head of state and leader of a global religion with 1.4 billion followers.

Some callers ask the nuns to just put him on the right path.

“People of simple faith don’t understand that the pope can’t talk to everyone,” Sister Gabriella said.

Others need counseling or comfort. The sisters try to provide it within the boundaries of limited time and do not misinterpret as the official spokesmen of the Vatican.

“But if I can give comfort or hope, I think it’s in order,” says sister Anthony, who came to the Vatican a year ago of her native Philippines, where she was a provincial majority. “Some calls are very tempting.”

Among those who recently called with concerns about the pope were a woman who told sister Anthony that she was Muslim but loved Francis, and wanted to inquire about his health.

“It’s very impressive to me,” the sister remembers as he added that some callers are much less friendly. “Others are angry with the church, so we listen respectfully.”

About the Bells Spectrum, the sisters say they especially like to offer a woman’s touch.

“Pope Francis often reminds that the church is a mother,” Mother Micaela said. “And to be this voice, this sensitivity, gives this female approach a sense of reliability.”

About 1100 women, religious and lying, work at the Vatican. Francis recently named a few as top posts, although the priesthood and deaconate – and thus the majority of the church hierarchy – remain exclusively male.

The Switchboard sisters are proud of both their unseen service and the increasing visibility of women in the Vatican.

“For me, it is a blessing to be in one community with the pope and serve the universal church,” said sister Anthony. “If we know that there are more responsibilities for women, we feel very empowered.”

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