The nuns who operate the Vatican’s switchboard are fielding a growing number of calls with questions like that as the pope remains hospitalized in Rome. “They feel like children waiting to know about their father,” said Sister Anthony, who runs the operation in a spartan office steps away from St. Peter’s. Basilica. The Vatican’s central number is public — and the sisters of the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master make sure all who call it get a real person, not the “press 1 for English, 2 for Latin” version of the automation that’s become the norm at major institutions and businesses worldwide.