The move poses a direct challenge to Pope Francis' governance.

The employees are demanding improved seniority, leave and overtime benefits.

The class-action complaint also highlights health and security concerns due to cost-cutting measures at the museums.

These include overcrowding and reduced security staff - which potentially compromise safety.

The complaint, penned by veteran Vatican attorney Laura Sgrò, references Catholic social teaching and Pope Francis' own appeals for workers' rights.

"They have tried so many times through individual petitions to resolve this situation" she said.

"So this move is quite extreme. After many years of discussion, this is the first class action. We have 49 people now, but I think this number will increase over the next few days."

Sgrò said staff had allegedly faced disciplinary action if off sick and found not to be at home during visits from a Vatican doctor.

The visit must occur within 24 hours of the sick leave commencing.

"This is crazy" she said. "They risk disciplinary action even if they go out for an hour to see their own doctor."

Sgrò also claims that workers who had to stay home during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the Vatican Museums were forced to close, were now being asked to hand back salaries paid during that period.

Absolute monarchy

The complaint is the latest legal challenge to underscore how the Vatican's laws, regulations and practices are often incompatible with Italian and European norms.

Recently, civil and criminal cases have exposed how Vatican employees, especially lay Italian citizens, have little or no legal recourse beyond the peculiar justice system of the city-state. The Pope wields supreme executive, legislative and judicial power in this absolute monarchy.

Cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, head of the Vatican City State administration, has 30 days to respond to the complaint.

If he does not, the case could be negotiated with the Vatican's labour office - though the office can refuse to hear it.

In recent legal challenges, there have been indications that complaints may be escalated to the European Court of Human Rights. This is despite the Holy See not being a member.

Vatican spokespersons and Cardinal Alzaga have not responded to requests for comment.

Sources

AP News

The Guardian

The ruling came after the activists glued their hands to the base of an ancient statue in the Vatican Museums in a protest to draw attention to climate change.

The two members of the Last Generation environmental activist group, Guido Viero and Ester Goffi, also received a nine-month suspended sentence and were fined 1,620 euros apiece.

A third activist on trial with them, Laura Zorzini, was fined 120 euros.

The trial stemmed from an Aug 18 protest in the Vatican Museums, during which Viero and Goffi glued their hands to the base of the Laocoon statue, one of the most important ancient works in the collection that is believed to date from the 1st century BC.

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The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the man was in his 50s and had "behaved strangely."

He knocked two busts off their pedestals in the museums' Chiaramonti hall, which houses more than 1,000 pieces and is one of the most important collections of Roman portrait busts.

Museum staff restrained the man, and Vatican police arrived a few minutes later to arrest him.

The two busts were damaged, but not severely, the source said, adding that they had already been taken to the restoration lab in the museums for repair.

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The group (pictured along with their accompanying escort), met Francis at Casa Santa Marta early in the morning before visiting the Vatican museums.

With them, they brought a basket of bread they had baked earlier in the day to give to Francis.

Theirs is a prison for people with addictive disorders. It includes a treatment centre and programme for those with substance abuse problems.

In common with many people during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, the prisoners started baking bread. The prison director Anna Maria Trapazzo told Francis that they will open a store soon and would be happy to welcome him there any time.

Francis has often shown his concern for prisoners.

Meeting them at his home is just one way he shows this.

Last year, for instance, he offered a Mass for prisoners after some inmates from prisons across Italy rioted when they were told the government had banned family visits because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At least 12 prisoners died within three days as a result of the violence.

The chaplain accompanying the prisoners to the Vatican said fear about the virus contributed to the tense situation.

Other situations where Francis showed compassion to prisoners include choosing a prison chaplain to write the meditations for the papal Stations of the Cross on Good Friday 2020 and - before the pandemic - washing prisoners' feet at Holy Thursday Mass.

Francis told his visitors that "It is important to seek out what is positive at a time when life is not at its most beautiful. Seek the positive in order to keep going forward."

The chaplain said the visiting prisoners and all others detainees he has met have deep affection and great esteem for Francis.

He said this is partly because of his many prison visits and also because of his constant calls for treating the incarcerated people with dignity and making a serious commitment to their rehabilitation.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Angelus News
• Image: Angelus News

The Virgin Mary is the ultimate example of its devotion to motherhood, to the point that one could say that every day is Mother's Day in the Vatican.

Pope Francis, following the legacy of the previous two pontiffs, has taken steps to turn the Church's devotion to women and mothers into facts, in part by calling for more women to be appointed to positions of prominence in the Vatican and throughout the Church.

"A Church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary.

The Madonna is more important than the Apostles, and the Church herself is feminine, the spouse of Christ and a mother," Pope Francis told journalists on the flight back from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in 2013.

"We cannot limit the role of women in the Church to altar girls or the president of a charity, there must be more."

And more followed, with women being appointed by the Argentine pope to roles that had always been occupied by men. Some of the pope's "firsties" are also mothers, and a few of them accepted to talk to Crux about their experiences, challenges and projects.

BARBARA JATTA - Having it All
Name: Barbara Jatta
Nationality: Italian
Position: Director of the Vatican Museums
Role model: St. George
Quote: "It's a matter of energy and will"

Barbara Jatta, the newly elected director of the world-famous Vatican Museums, is the poster child for the Vatican's openness and encouragement of women and mothers in positions of management in the Church.

A mother of three and a Vatican employee for the past 20 years, Jatta recognizes that there has been a shift in society in regard to the role of women, and that the Vatican is reflecting that shift. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux article by Claire Giangravè, and Editorial Assistant at Crux
• Image: The Vatican Museums