Meet the most powerful woman in the Vatican – she runs the museum

Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta, an art historian by training, is often referred to as the most powerful woman in the Vatican. Photo: AP

When Pope Francis gave his traditional Christmas address to the Roman Curia, the audience was typically lots of old churchmen. But far in the back there was also one single woman – Barbara Jatta.

She heads the Vatican Museums, and is the first woman ever in that position at the more than 500-year-old institution, one that includes the Sistine Chapel with Michelangelo's masterpiece ceiling paintings.