The Secretary of the Governorate of the Vatican State  and the President of the Office of the Labour of the Vatican State joined us for the celebration of the Eucharist and a short dinner presentation. This is the office responsible for the civil government aspects of the world’s smallest soverieng nation – Utilities, communications, stamps and coins, goods and supplies, facilities, police and fire services, and labor. Though each office within the Holy See has its own recruiting and hiring practices, the Labor office is responsible for orientation to employment in the Vatican and to ongoing human resource concerns. There also exists a labor council, elected from among Vatican employees of different fields, to advise the Cardinal President of the Governorate.

The archbishops responsibilities also extend to the extraterritorial buildings and properties in and around Rome, which enjoy – to various degrees – status similar to an embassy, a little bit of one country in the middle of another. At least part of the Passionist Monastery in which the Lay Centre resides is considered extraterritorial, depending on whether you ask the Archbishop’s boss or the city of Rome!

Archbishop Corbellini is one of just a handful of bishops ordained personally by Pope Benedict XVI since his election as bishop of Rome in 2005.