Did you know that the Vatican switchboard is manned – or, dare I say, nunned – by a group of sisters? The Catholic News Service recently published an article that mentions the team of switchboard operators responsible for handling all the calls to the Vatican. Here’s an excerpt from the article “Customer service: Vatican operators staff switchboard 24/7“:
About a dozen nuns who are members of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master work the switchboards 24 hours a day in six-hour shifts. They come from such countries as South Korea, Malta, Poland, Italy, India, Philippines and Brazil, and they speak a myriad of languages. Mornings are their “rush hour” with at least six nuns working, while only two or three need to be on duty for afternoons….
The new call center has a giant, flat-screen television in the front of the room so the nuns can follow events being aired on CTV, the Vatican Television Station, and answer people’s questions about a ceremony or audience under way.
What a great idea! Wouldn’t it be great if the mayor’s office, the White House, or the United Nations had a similar kind of system? You could be watching the President on TV delivering the State of the Union address. The President says something that evokes a question in your mind, so you just pick up the phone and call the White House switchboard. A live intern, who is following the address as well, answers your call. You ask, “Did he just say the war is a ‘catastrophic success’? Could you please explain how that is possible?”
Well, I doubt that will ever happen. But in the meantime, it sure is good to know that the Vatican has a great group of women on the frontlines of the phone lines.
For more information on the nuns, visit the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master (link to U.S. website), a religious community closely associated with the Daughters of St. Paul.
Archived Comments
- April 1, 2007 at 5:57 am
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I have great admiration for Nuns – being taught by nuns at a boarding prep school I understand how much dedication they give to their students and the community with great self-abstinence and diligence. Each word said is meant with such devotion it makes you admire their self sacrifice and self motivation to do good and be faithful to the religion. I’ll never forget the head-nun who was extremely influential to me in that she encouraged us to read poetry even in the open fields at boarding school so we could be at one with nature when reading poetry. That and more – she made me value the things in life like ‘being independant – study hard and find time to relax yet be productive in whatever we/I did, encouraging hard work and diligence at the same time.
- April 1, 2007 at 7:09 am
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Thanks for the comment, Coll! Sister J
