When Benedict XVI stepped down last week after a
resignation that stunned the Vatican he made the Sunday People reach for the record books. The last time a Pope quit was in 1415 – Gregory XII. But
he was forced out. The last one to leave voluntarily was in 1294 – Celestine
V. And here are more amazing facts and figures about the
Pope and the Vatican, which is a country in its own right
within the boundaries of modern Rome and the world’s
smallest independent nation.
ABSOLUTELY NO1
The Pope, known as the Bishop of Rome, is the only
absolute monarch in Europe as head of the Vatican state,
population 826 including cardinals and guards.
QUITE A SITE
Vatican City is a Unesco World Heritage Site, the only one
to encompass a country. It is 110 acres, about the size of a
golf course. A dress code means many a tourist has been
turned away for showing too much flesh.
THE HOLY POST
The Vatican has its own post office and stamps. Locals
often use its mail system because it is better than the
Italian state’s service. It has its own currency, a form of
the euro, and mints coins with the Pope’s head – sought
after by collectors.
JOB LOT
You become a citizen of the Vatican as soon as you get a
job there – and your citizenship is revoked if you lose
that job. If you have no other citizenship to revert to you ­
automatically become Italian.
QUID PRO QUO
The Vatican Bank, the only one allowed there, has its
own cash machines that address you in Latin – the state’s
administrative language. Useful phrases include Inserito
scidulam (insert your card). Then watch out for ­
pickpockets hovering nearby.
FEEL THE PINCH
Because it has so few citizens and so many visitors the
Vatican has the highest crime rate in the world by head
of population – 130 per year. It is mostly petty theft but
there has been a double murder.
FIDDLERS’ PARADISE?
Street crime is small fry compared with the massive sums
of money suspected of being fiddled within the Vatican.
Who says so? Last year US drug enforcement chiefs
identified the Vatican as a possible money-laundering
centre used by international criminals. The State Department’s International Narcotics Control
Strategy lists the Holy See as “a country of concern” for ­
financial crimes. In the light of the dodgy movement of
23million euros from the Vatican Bank to two corner-
street outfits in September 2010, the bank’s boss and his
chief executive are under investigation. Detectives have ­ complained of Vatican officials’ “deafening silence”.
RED CARDED
Only last month the Italian Central Bank suspended all
bank card payments in the Vatican because of failure to ­
implement anti-money laundering laws in their system of
cash flows.
BANKERS FROM HELL
The Vatican lost £20million in the collapse of the
Franklin National Bank in 1974. Its owner, Michele “The
Shark” Sindona, died in prison after drinking cyanide-
laced coffee. In 1982 the Vatican-owned Banco
Ambrosiano collapsed with £700million of debt. Its
chairman Roberto Calvi was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London with his pockets full of
bricks.
GABRIELE’S NO ANGEL
The Pope’s former butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested last
May after he nabbed a stash of papal documents and
leaked them to the press to expose “evil and corruption”
in the Vatican. Benedict visited him in prison in December
and granted him a Christmas pardon.
THE DARK SIDE
But questions over the extent of the “evil and corruption”
linger on as the Church tries to shake off the scandal of
abuse by priests. Days before Benedict resigned, Britain’s
most senior Roman Catholic, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, quit
over allegedly “inappropriate acts” with younger priests.
SIN CITY
There was a murder in the Vatican in 1998. The newly ­
appointed commander of the Pope’s Swiss Guards and his
wife were killed in their apartment. Some said it was the ­
commander’s gay lover but the Vatican’s line was to blame
a disgruntled guardsman, who then shot himself dead.
CATHOLIC GILT
Each Pope wears the Ring of the Fisherman because he is
a successor of the Apostle St Peter “fisher of men”. A
new ring is cast in gold for each new Pope and placed on
the third finger of his right hand. When a Pope dies the
ring is broken with a silver hammer and removed. No
further documents can be sealed – by wax marked with that ring – until there is a new Pope.
MORTAL SOLES
Benedict XVI restored a papal tradition of wearing red
leather shoes outdoors after his predecessor John Paul II
(1978-2005) adopted brown. Benedict’s were made by
Antonio Arellano from the Gammarelli shop in Rome.
They are not to be confused with the red papal slippers,
for indoors only, or bishops’ episcopal sandals.
KNOCK THREE TIMES
When a Pope appears to have popped his clogs an official
called the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church takes a
ceremonial silver hammer and taps on his forehead three
times, calling him by his Christian name. When there is no
reply he announces the Pope is dead.
VOTE AND SEE
The next Holy Father will be elected in a secret ballot by
more than 100 cardinals in the Sistine Chapel. To become
the new pontiff a cardinal must have a two-thirds ­
majority plus one vote.
HERE IS THE FLUES
The outside world can see how the voting is going by the ­
chimney on the roof. Black smoke means no Pope yet.
White smoke equals new Pope. Originally the black smoke
was produced by burning the ballots with wet straw, the
white by burning the ballots alone. Now chemicals produce
the effect.
SWISS ROLE
The tradition of the Swiss Guards began in 1506 when
Pope Julius II decided soldiers from Switzerland were the
most loyal employees. To qualify for a post you first have
to be Swiss and a Catholic. All the guards swear to give up
their lives to protect the Pope. In 1527 they did just that
– when 147 of them were killed saving Clement VII in his desperate dash to safety as Emperor Charles V of France’s ­
soldiers sacked Rome. The guards’ dress uniform of blue,
red, orange and yellow stripes was designed in the early
1900s by a commandant inspired by the paintings of
Raphael (1483-1520).
KEEPING MUM
Mystery surrounds a certain Pope Johannes, who raised
eyebrows in the middle of the ninth century by – giving
birth. It is said he was really called Joan. No image of
Johannes remains. He/she was removed from history.
ASSETS CHECK
Perhaps because of this embarrassing mix-up Popes were ­
subsequently carried around in a chair with a hole in the
bottom. It might allow cardinals to check for manhood or
lack of it.
OUR FATHER
Lots of Holy Fathers have been fathers. Pope Innocent
VIII (1432-92) had eight children. It is rumoured
Christopher Columbus got so many favours from powerful
people because he was a son of Innocent. Pope Clement
IV (1265-1268) was the last to have been married. The ­
unfortunate Pope John XII (938-964) was said to have been beaten to death by the husband of a woman he was
bedding.
RIGHT ON
Infallibility was made official in 1870 by Pius IX, who
deemed that he and his successors were “preserved from
the possibility of error”. He was the longest serving Pope
– 31 years and seven months.
THE WORST
The notorious Borgia family produced two Popes – Calixtus
III (1455-1458) and Alexander VI (1492-1503). Their sins
included adultery, rape, incest, theft, bribery, fraud, torture
and murder. But in fairness they were generous donors to
the arts.
OUR NICK
The only British only Pope was Nicholas Breakspear, of St
Albans, who was Adrian IV from 1154 to 1159.
JUST A QUICKIE
The shortest reign was 13 days – Urban VII in 1590. Pope
Stephen II died of a stroke four days after his election in
752, before he was consecrated. The youngest was
Benedict IX, only 11 when elected in 1032. He grew up and
sold the papacy.
SOURCE:www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bizarre-secrets-of-the-vatican-1739853