A providential calling
Flora Gicquel’s work over the past nearly nine months can be described as a labor of love: the opportunity to combine her professional interest in peacebuilding with her personal values as a Catholic.
As a research fellow at Caritas Internationalis in Rome since October 2024, Gicquel is leading a study on Caritas’ peacebuilding best practices and lessons learnt, with a special focus on the role of women. Outcomes from her research will help revise the Caritas Confederation’s peacebuilding strategies to enhance peacebuilding projects and showcase the significance of women’s roles to advance peacebuilding work at the local level.
Her fellowship, which runs through August, is sponsored by Notre Dame Rome, the Catholic Peacebuilding Network, and the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs. She is the fourth Preparing the Future Research Fellow at the Vatican, made possible by the generous support of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the GHR Foundation through FADICA-Catholic Philanthropy Network.
“I am very, very grateful for this opportunity,” said Gicquel, who described the opportunity coming together naturally, soon after getting married in May 2024.
“My fiance at the time had found a position in Italy. Meanwhile, a former fellow at the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who I’d reached out to two years prior, thought of me for this position. He sent me the application, and it all fell into place,” she said.
A portion of Gicquel’s work culminates in a public roundtable discussion taking place Tuesday, June 17, at Notre Dame Rome’s campus, and co-sponsored by the fellowship partners, plus Caritas Internationalis. A panel of distinguished speakers will address how the Catholic Church is tapping into the power of Catholic women peacebuilders – and the importance of doing so. The event is hybrid; to register to attend virtually, visit here.
“This is the first time we partner with Caritas Internationalis on a project of this type,” said Silvia Dall’Olio, director of the Notre Dame Rome campus. “Flora’s personal and professional profile made her an ideal candidate for the fellowship and the event that she put together is a confirmation of the interest surrounding the vital role women play in the Church and in the peacebuilding field.”
For Gicquel, the fellowship was the realization of a dream she’d had since a teenager: to be useful in a world impacted by war through peacebuilding of some type. She’d studied literature in college, followed by a master’s in philosophy, and was on the path to becoming a philosophy teacher with an interest in humanitarian ethics and governance.
Then she traveled to Lebanon, where she volunteered with the Church as part of a United Nations-led refugee camp. Gicquel’s professional plans changed.
“This was really an eye-opening experience for me, and I quickly realized that I wanted to get into this sector of humanitarian work or development,” she said.
From a personal perspective, it was also a time in Gicquel’s life when she wanted to realign herself with the Church and reconcile questions she had. She returned from Lebanon and enrolled in a theology course, which “helped me to see the truth that the Church is carrying, and also the social aspect of it. So this was my step forward, toward working with the Church and being more active, helpful, and responsible for my faith.”
Next, she pursued another master’s program, in London, focused on humanitarian emergencies and international development. After graduating, she landed a position with an ESG Consultancy, where she managed an international development project for the Gates Foundation. The project focused on behavior change and women empowerment; it targeted teenage girls in Africa through a social marketing campaign.
“The work was great; it was really interesting in terms of my career goals because I wanted something concrete and to do something meaningful,” said Gicquel.
“My fellowship at Caritas enables me to work for the Church, which feels right to me because my role and purpose are even more aligned with my values and my faith,” said Gicquel. “It’s extremely meaningful, and everyone is passionate about working here.”
The study
The humanitarian outreach of the Caritas Confederation is vast, with service spanning the globe. Its Peacebuilding: A Caritas training manual was first published in 2002 in response to the genocide in Rwanda, and updated in 2006. There is a desire to update the available resources emphasizing more holistic approaches to peacebuilding and social cohesion, as foundations for Integral Human Development, such as the triple nexus approach. There is also a widely recognised need across the Confederation for stronger support mechanisms to women, who are increasingly playing integral, key roles in peacebuilding and social cohesion initiatives
“The triple nexus approach fully embraces the interconnectedness and integration of three key areas: humanitarian aid, development, and peacebuilding,” said Victor Genina, director of the Integral Human Development department at Caritas Internationalis and Gicquel’s supervisor.
“Flora’s research will be a huge help to us related to the role of women in peacebuilding, community engagement and reconciliation. Her work is leading to concrete recommendations for how Caritas can practically integrate the triple nexus, particularly with women at the local peacebuilding level.”
There have been three phases to Gicquel's research activities. Using available data online, her first project was to map peacebuilding activities underway in all 162 member countries of the confederation. Next, a survey questionnaire was sent to all member countries, to delve into the results from the mapping exercise, gather best practices and lessons learned, and ask if women had been included in these peacebuilding activities. Gicquel’s survey garnered a response rate of more than 40%.
She is now in the third phase of her project, conducting interviews with 24 leaders in the confederation throughout the world, to glean deeper insights as to the best path forward for the organization with its peacebuilding efforts. Gicquel has already submitted a report on the survey results; she is now drafting a comprehensive report that consolidates the survey findings and the interviews conducted, which will be shared following the June roundtable.
“Flora’s work is pivotal for women’s empowerment, as well as to develop a new generation of lay women and men to serve the Catholic Church in its mission to transform the social order,” said Gerard F. Powers, director of Catholic Peacebuilding Studies at the University of Notre Dame and coordinator of the Catholic Peacebuilding Network.
In the fall, Gicquel and a colleague will co-author an article for The Journal of Moral Theology on women and their roles with security and peacebuilding, best practices, and case study examples.
“In doing my research, it’s become clear that the participation of women in recovery processes helps communities thrive,” said Gicquel. “One of the key arguments to say that women should be at the center of peacebuilding, or at least more supported in their peacebuilding efforts, is that they are, along with youth, one of the most affected by conflicts. They are among the most vulnerable when it comes to violence and conflicts.
“As a consequence, they know what needs to be done to tackle the issues that they are affected by. And research shows that the involvement of women in peacebuilding processes leads to longer lasting agreements and more peaceful societies,” she said.
When the fellowship wraps up later this summer, Gicquel plans to rest a bit; she and her husband are expecting their first child at the end of August.
“The baby will be my immediate focus, and then we’ll see about my future,” she said. “This fellowship has been incredible; I didn’t know there were jobs in the Church working on humanitarian kinds of topics until I arrived here.
“I am grateful for what I’ve been given, and I see a bright future ahead. It’s an exciting time in my life.”
Originally published by at kroc.nd.edu on June 13, 2025.