2 The Vatican State

Of all the religious and political institutions that exist today, the Vatican is by far the most ancient. It is the seat of a sovereign, independent, and free State; of the Government of the Catholic Church; and of the most astute diplomatic-political power in the world; and each of these three aspects is an integral part of the Catholic Church. Although in its quality of a diplomatic centre it is one of the most important in the world, as an independent State it is one of the newest and, as far as the extent of its territory is concerned, the smallest sovereign State in existence, having under its absolute rule only one hundred-odd acres and about 600 regular inhabitants. Yet, it directs. and governs one of the greatest, if not the greatest, and most united mass of human beings in the world―400,000,000 Catholics, covering the territories of practically all existing nations. Such extraordinary and contradictory attributes certainly would alone make the Vatican an object of curiosity, if not of study, to the least-interested reader.

What is meant by the word “Vatican”? “Vatican,” explains the Catholic Encyclopedia, is “the official residence of the Pope at Rome, so named from being built on the lower slopes of the Vatican Hill; figuratively, the name is used to signify the Papal power and influence and, by extension, the whole Church.”

For the Christian, the Vatican began to assume importance when St. Peter was crucified there in A. D. 67. After the death of St. Peter, the Christians erected a sepulchre facing the circus where he had been executed. Later on, the body of St. Peter’s successor, St. Linus, was buried there. Then the latter’s successor, St. Anacletus, Bishop of Rome, built the first chapel on the tomb. With the passing of the centuries it grew in importance as a sacred place, a place of worship, and a place where the mortal remains of many Popes were buried.

In its long history the Palace of the Vatican, to the building of which so many Popes contributed, and the Papal State have passed through many vicissitudes, as have the prerogatives of the Popes themselves. The details need not detain us here. For our purpose it is sufficient to know that the Vatican State as it exists to-day came into being in February, 1929 with the signing of the Lateran Treaty. By this treaty Italy recognized the territory of the Vatican as an independent and sovereign State and was bound to pay 750,000,000 lire and consign Italian 5 per cent bonds to the nominal value of 1,000,000,000 lire.

As it is recognized today, the Vatican State consists of the City of the Vatican; this is the area of Rome recognized by the treaty of the Lateran as constituting the territorial extent of the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See. It includes the Vatican palaces, its gardens and annexes, the Basilica and Piazza of St. Peter, and adjacent buildings. In all it covers an area of just under one square mile. At the outbreak of the Second World War the population of the Vatican City was about 600 persons. All male adults are in the immediate service of the Catholic Church or in its ministry, such employment being the ordinary qualification for residence and citizenship.

The Pope has the plenitude of legislative, executive, and judicial power, which, during a vacancy, belongs to the College of Cardinals. For the government of the State, the Pope names a Governor, a layman, and there is a consultative council. The Governor is responsible for public order, safety, protection of property, etc. The Code of Law is the Canon Law, in addition to which there are special regulations for the City and such laws of the Italian State as it may be convenient to adopt.

The Vatican has no private army, but a small number of picturesque guards, who are chiefly employed in religious or diplomatic ceremonies. The famous Swiss guard was first formed by the enrolment of 150 men from the Canton of Zurich in September 1505. In 1816 Pius VII created the Pontifical Gendarmerie or Carabinieri. In addition to these men there exists the Noble Guard, for personal attendance on the Pope. The Corps is composed entirely of members of the patricians and nobility of Rome.

The Vatican has its own stamps, coins, radio, and railway, and in the purely technical machinery of Government the tiny Vatican City is not unlike a miniature modern State. It has its own newspaper, the Osservatore Romano, which first appeared in 1860. In 1890 Pope Leo XIII bought the paper and made it the official organ of the Vatican. It carries great weight and expresses the official views of the Vatican on important political and social world events.

Like any other State, the Vatican must have money to provide for the maintenance and salaries of its employees, nuncios, churches, seminaries, and numerous other institutions which are necessary for the existence of the Catholic Church. The officials of the administrative machinery of the Vatican State must be paid. There are also the missions of the Catholic Church, which require a good deal of money.

Before 1870 the Vatican’s main revenue came from the temporal State. But since then other means have been found to fill the coffers. It is almost impossible to gauge the expenses of the Vatican, as there is no trace of budgets, and receipts are not made public. However, at the opening of this century it was estimated that the Vatican needed at least £800,000 per annum.

Today the Vatican income is derived from two main sources ordinary and extraordinary. Amongst the ordinary the most important is the Peter’s Pence, a voluntary tax introduced in Catholic countries since 1870 to replace the income supplied by the Papal States taken over by the Italians.

Curiously enough, the most generous contributor to the finances of the Catholic Church and the Vatican is the Protestant United States of America. The sum of money collected there in modern times is the largest drawn through Peter’s Pence in any country. It is followed by Canada, the Republics of South America, and, in Europe, by Spain, France, and Belgium. Since the loss of the Papal States the United States of America has become not only the most generous contributor to the Vatican, but also its banker. In 1870 the Vatican floated a loan of 200,000 scudi from Rothschild. In 1919 a Papal delegate was sent to the United States of America with a view to securing a loan of 1,000,000 dollars.

In the same year the Pilgrimage of the Knights of Columbus gave the Vatican a gift of more than 250,000 dollars. In 1928, thanks to Cardinal Mundelein, the Vatican was loaned £300,000 in 5 per cent. sinking fund twenty-year bonds, backed by Church property in Chicago.

The more regular income is derived from taxation and fees for all sorts of functions, such as from chancellery, datary offices, marriages, titles of nobility, orders of knighthood, etc.

As for the extraordinary income of the Vatican, it is almost impossible to assess its extent. It includes gifts and legacies which sometimes reach millions. Whenever there is a pilgrimage, each pilgrim donates a certain sum. An American pilgrim, f or instance, is expected to give at least a dollar; a Frenchman ten francs. Of course, pilgrimages are very frequent, and. are often composed of thousands of people.

From 1929 until the outbreak of the Second World War the Vatican got over £750,000,000 from the Fascist Government as compensation for the loss of the Papal States.

George Seldes, in his book The Vatican: Yesterday-Today-Tomorrow, estimates that between the two world wars the Vatican revenue was more than 180,000,000 lire a year. Since then it has greatly increased.

But the main function of the Vatican is to be the officially recognized diplomatic-political centre of the Catholic Church; as an independent sovereign State it sends its own representatives to the various Governments of the world, while big and small nations send their ambassadors to the Vatican. The Vatican’s representatives accredited to those Governments with which the Pope has diplomatic relations are usually called Nuncios, Papal Nuncios, etc. They have the full rank of ambassadors, with all the accompanying privileges, being on equal footing with the ambassadors of any lay Powers.

The main purposes of the Vatican’s diplomatic representatives accredited to a Government are those defined by Canon Law (267): ―

(a) To cultivate good relations between the Apostolic See and the Government to which they are accredited.
(b) To watch over the interests of the Church in the territories assigned to them and to give the Roman Pontiff information concerning conditions in these areas.
(c) In addition to these ordinary powers, to exercise such extraordinary ones as may be delegated to them.

The ideal to be achieved is the conclusion of a treaty between the Vatican and the Government concerned; and although negotiations for such treaties are usually carried out directly, between the panties concerned, the role of the Papal diplomatic representatives is of the utmost importance.

Such treaties are called Concordats. A Concordat is an agreement by which the State grants special privileges to the Catholic Church and recognizes its standing and rights within the State, while the Church pledges its support of the Government and, usually, non-interference in political matters. Such a treaty becomes especially desirable when “matters which from one point of view are civil and from another religious might create friction.” In such a case, as Leo XIII said, “a concordat… greatly strengthens the State’s authority, ” and the Papacy is always ready to “offer the Church as a much- needed protection to the rulers of Europe.”

When it is not possible to conclude a Concordat, then the nuncio should strive to reach a compromise which, instead of a formal treaty, becomes a modus vivendi. If that, too, is impossible, then the Vatican can occasionally send to g given Government special Papal representatives on particular occasions. Usually the Vatican charges a local primate with the care of the Church’s interests.

Although the outward machinery of Vatican diplomacy does not differ very much from that of any secular Power, fundamentally obey differ because of two main characteristics―namely, the aims and the means at the disposal of Papal representatives.

The Papal representative must strive to further not only the diplomatic and political interests of the Vatican, but, above all, the spiritual interests of the Catholic Church as a religious institution, and his mission therefore assumes a dual character. Owing to this, the Papal representative has at his disposal, not only the diplomatic machinery that any ordinary diplomatic representative of a lay State would have, but also the vast religious machinery of the Catholic Church inside the country to which he is accredited, as well as outside it. In other words, the Papal diplomatic representative will have at his disposal the entire hierarchy of a given country―from cardinals, archbishops, and bishops down to the most humble village priest. Moreover, the Catholic organizations of a social, cultural, or political character, headed by the Catholic parties, would obey his instructions. The result is that a nuncio can exercise formidable pressure upon. a Government-pressure of a religious-political nature that is denied to any lay diplomatist.

Because every priest is de facto an agent of the Vatican and can collect reliable information about the local conditions of his parish -or, if he is a bishop, of his diocese-or, if he is a primate, of his nation-the Vatican, to which all these data. are sent, is one of the best centres of information of an economic, social, and political character in the world.

When to this is added the influence that the Vatican can exercise on the various Catholic parties and Catholic Governments, and on national and international assemblies, it becomes evident that the power of this great diplomatic-political centre is felt throughout the world. This is recognized by most nations, including non-Catholic countries, such as Protestant United States of America and Great Britain, and non-Christian countries like Japan.

The importance of the Vatican as a diplomatic centre is enhanced in wartime. For during hostilities, when diplomatic contact between belligerent countries is cut off, the warring nations can get in touch with each other through the Vatican. The services rendered and the knowledge thus gathered from both sides give the Vatican enormous prestige in the eyes of lay Powers. For these and other reasons, during the First World War countries hastened to send their representatives to the Vatican: Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Protestant Great Britain, France, and even Russia. By the end of the war thirty-four nations had permanent diplomatic representatives accredited to the Pope.

During the Second World War that figure was almost doubled, and great countries such as non-Christian Japan and Protestant United States of America sought means by which they could be represented at the Vatican―the United States of America by resorting to the diplomatic device of sending a “personal Ambassador of the President”; the Japanese Empire by accrediting an envoy with the full rank of Ambassador to the Holy See. From the very beginning of the Second World War until its end, in 1945, the Vatican, with fifty-two ambassadors, ministers, and personal envoys sent to it by almost all the nations of the world, was a diplomatic-political centre equal in importance to the great capitals where the destinies of war and peace were conceived and discussed: Washington, Moscow, Berlin, London, Tokyo. We shall see later why the Vatican, although it owned not a single war aeroplane, tank, or warship, was in a position to deal as an equal with the greatest military Powers on earth before, but above all throughout, the Second World War.

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