Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Why Does Vatican City Exist?

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

Located in the middle of Rome, the capital of Italy, is what many people consider to be the smallest country in the world: Vatican City. However, Vatican City isn’t like other countries. At all. It is different in almost every respect to any other country, so much so, that it is reasonable to ask why the country even exists. Learn more about Vatican City, and why it is even a thing, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Located in the middle of Rome, the capital of Italy, is what many people believe to be the smallest country in the world, Vatican City. However, Vatican City isn't like other countries at all. It's different in almost every respect to any other country, so much so that it's reasonable to ask why the country even exists. Learn more about Vatican City and why it's even a thing on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? throughline is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR.

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Check out all of the classes at the Restoration Depot.com. And try your first class for only $5 by selecting first class special at checkout. Remember, that is The Restoration Depot. To say that Vatican City is unlike any other country in the world is really a massive understatement. It's extremely small, obviously. It's an absolute monarchy, but the monarch is elected. Everyone in the country was born somewhere else and has citizenship somewhere else, including the leader of the country. In several episodes, I've touched upon the papacy and many of those stories will have some origin in the Roman Empire.

However, the story of Vatican City really starts in the 19th century. Prior to Vatican City, there was a thing called the papal states. Among all the kingdoms and republics in Italy, there was a swatch of land in the middle of Italy, which was ruled by the Pope. In addition to providing income for the papacy, it also provided independence for the Pope from the rest of the rulers in Europe. So long as the Pope had his plot of land, he didn't have to worry about kings trying to influence him.

The situation changed in the 19th century, when Italy began to unify. All of the smaller entities got merged, into the new Greater Italy. In 1870, Rome itself was taken over, and the Pope lost the last of his territorial sovereignty. In May 1871, Italy passed the Law of Guarantees, which tried to make the Pope a citizen of Italy, but also allowed him to have ambassadors and other honors. The catch was the Pope would not be an independent sovereign. This was rejected by Pope Leo the 13th, and it began a period of 60 years where the popes never left the Vatican. Leo the 13th and subsequent

popes called themselves prisoners in the Vatican. Three subsequent popes were elected and then died behind the walls of the Vatican without ever leaving its grounds. This became known in diplomatic circles as the Roman question. During this period, countries kept sending ambassadors and emissaries to the Holy See. And here is where I have to explain the biggest difference between the Vatican and every other country, the Holy See. The Holy See is an institution of the papacy in the Catholic Church. A C, spelled S-E, is a name for a diocese, or the area which has oversight by a bishop. The Holy See is just the name for the diocese of Rome.

The Holy See runs Vatican City, but Vatican City is not the Holy See. Other countries recognize and send ambassadors to the Holy See, but not to Vatican City. The best analogy I could think of would be the International Red Cross. The Red Cross has relations with countries. Let's say the United States assigned an ambassador to the Red Cross, which is not totally out of the question. It would be someone who could coordinate efforts with the Red Cross and the American government.

Now, because the Red Cross doesn't want to be influenced by any government, let's say Switzerland gives the land that the Red Cross headquarters sits on independence, and we'll call this country Red Crosslandia. The few acres of land that the Red Cross headquarters might sit on doesn't really matter in the big scheme of things. What matters is the mission and operations of the Red Cross. So, the rest of the world would still work with the Red Cross, not Red Cross Landia, which is really just responsible for moying the lawn and doing the maintenance on the buildings. So, back to Rome.

The Rome question hung over Italy for decades. Italy refused to move their capital out of Rome, and the popes refused to recognize the new nation of Italy, recognize civil marriages, or even encourage people to vote. There was even consideration by Pope Pius I, 9th, of leaving Rome entirely and going somewhere else like Malta. It became obvious over time that the papal states weren't going to be making a comeback. Moreover, the people of Rome didn't really even want to be ruled by the Pope. They wanted a mayor and a city council and all the normal things that cities have. The main issue for the Pope simply became having sovereignty. They did.

didn't want to be under the control of Italy. This was eventually resolved with the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The Lateran Treaty created the sovereign state of Vatican City, which would be under the control of the Holy See. There would also be other buildings over which the Holy See would have extraterritorial jurisdiction, and here I'll refer you to my episode I had on extraterritoriality. In addition to creating Vatican City, the Holy See recognized Italy and agreed to stay neutral in international. affairs. Italy also agreed to make a payment to the Holy See in compensation for the loss of the papal states. The treaty specifies that Vatican City is a new creation and not a vestige of the papal states, which was officially dissolved. To celebrate the treaty, Italian Prime Minister

Benino Mussolini created the Via della Conciliationi, which is the wide boulevard directly in front of St. Peter's Square. So officially then, Vatican City has an area of 121 acres. The Citizens of Vatican City number 825 people as of 2019. That includes 453 residents and 372 diplomats residing outside of the Vatican. A total of about 800 people live in the Vatican, although not all our citizens. Vatican citizenship is given to those who work for the Vatican. Members of the Swiss Guard are given citizenship, as are their families. There are two types of passports which are given out.

Diplomats are issued passports from the Holy See. Family members and other non-diplomats are issued Vatican City passports. Vatican passports are in Italian, French, and English, whereas Holy See Passports are in Latin French and English. Unlike most countries, Vatican citizenship is only by appointment. You cannot get it by blood or by being born there. Anyone who has their Vatican citizenship revoked, if they have no other citizenship, automatically become citizens of Italy. Vatican City has no official language.

However, the working language is Italian, and official documents are in Latin. The Swiss Guard, being Swiss, use Swiss German as their working language. Because of its small size, if it's ever on a list of countries, it's usually a statistical outlier, so it's usually left off. The Vatican, technically, would have the highest crime rate in the world due to the number of pickpockets and purse-snatchings, which occur in St. Peter's Square. Likewise, they have the highest wine consumption per capita in the world. They also have the most popes per square mile.

Given the small size, they actually average five popes per square mile, not including any former popes living there. Believe it or not, Vatican City actually has a football league. They have eight teams in their league, and they play for the Vatican City Championship. The Vatican has a parish church, and no, it's not St. Peter's Basilica. It's called St. Anne's, and it is literally around the corner from one of the gates. If you're walking around the Vatican and you see a gate with a parking lot in the other side, it's probably the gate where St. Anne's is located.

The Vatican does have a railway, which is more than some small countries can say. There's a railway station and about 300 meters of track inside the Vatican. It's mostly used for bringing in freight and other goods into the country. The Vatican has its own postal system, and it is actually one of the biggest moneymakers in the country. It's a full member of the Universal Postal Union, which is one of the few international organizations they have full membership in. Their membership is as Vatican City, not the Holy See. They are represented in a few other international organizations as Vatican City,

in particular organizations dealing with communications and Interpol. Crimes committed in Vatican City are usually tried in Italy. Italian police can patrol St. Peter's Square, which is open to the public. If you're in prison for a crime committed in the Vatican, your sentence will be carried out in an Italian prison, but the cost for the inmate will be paid. by the Vatican. Other governments have diplomatic relations with the Holy See, not the Vatican City. Because of its size, no embassies are located within Vatican City itself. Everything is in Rome,

and most large countries have separate embassies for Italy and the Vatican, in separate buildings. During World War II, the British Ambassador to the Holy See was allowed to actually stay in the Vatican due to Britain being at war with Italy. Every building in the country is listed as a cultural property under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. This means that according to international law, none of the 133 countries which signed the treaty can actually invade Vatican City. The actual day-to-day administration of Vatican City is in the hands of a legislature, believe it or not.

It's called the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State, and it consists of seven cardinals. They may pass laws, but everything has to be approved by the Pope. It's headed by the president of the governorate of the Vatican City State, which is a cardinal who has the daily administrative responsibility for the country. This would be the executive branch of the government. As with the legislature, the cardinal is assigned by the Pope. They oversee the various departments and offices of the Vatican City, which are not part of the Holy See. And there's also a judicial branch of the government as well. It actually has several different levels, including judges, a tribunal, an appellate court, and a Supreme Court.

The law in Vatican City is first and foremost the Catholic Church's canon law, but that really wasn't designed to be a legal system for a territory. In 2001, the fundamental law of Vatican City State was enacted, which serves as the constitutional basis for the civil functioning of the Vatican. This includes law from treaties at the Holy See a sign, including money laundering and human trafficking. So, despite the long history of this place called the Vatican, The Vatican City State is actually less than 100 years old.

It was a legal creation for the Holy See to function independently. Nonetheless, while it's very different than most countries, it still does have a few of the features which most independent countries exhibit. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even opportunities for a show producer credit. If you know someone you think would enjoy the show, please share it with them.

Also remember, if you leave a five-star review, I'll read your review on the show. First you get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries, about your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect, do whatever steps you want if you have cleared them with the pontiff. If everybody say his own, Kiri-A-le-is-one, doing the bad to get right.