Vatican Flag
National Arms
Benedict XVI's Personal Arms
Flag of the Swiss
Guard
Vatican
Links
Vatican Website
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Service
Tour of Holy See
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Museums
Sistine
Chapel
La Guardia Svizzera
Pontificia
Vatican Weather:
 |
The Holy See (State of
the Vatican City)
Santa Sede (Stato della Citta del Vaticano) |
Area: |
0.17 sq mi (0.44 sq km)
or 108.7 acres |
Population: |
921 (July 2004 est.) |
Language: |
Latin (official -- even
bank machines have a Latin option); Italian |
Time Zone: |
GMT +1 (GMT +2 during
the summer) |
Climate: |
temperate; mild, rainy
winters (September to mid-May) with hot, dry summers (May to September) |
Government |
Type: |
Ecclesiastical |
Constitution: |
Apostolic Constitution
of 1967 (effective 1 March 1968) |
Executive branch:
|
Chief of State: Pope Benedict
XVI
Head of Government: Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano
Cabinet: Pontifical Commission appointed by the Pope
Elections: Pope elected for life by the College of Cardinals; Secretary of
State appointed by the Pope |
Legislative branch:
|
Unicameral Pontifical
Commission |
Judicial branch:
|
None; normally handled
by Italy |
Diplomacy: |
The Holy See has formal
diplomatic relations with 166 nations |
International organization
participation: |
CE (observer), IAEA, ICFTU,
Intelsat, IOM (observer), ITU, NAM (guest), OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, UN
(observer), UNCTAD, UNHCR, UPU, WHO (observer), WIPO, WToO (observer), WTrO
(observer) |
Defense: |
Defense is the responsibility
of Italy; Swiss Papal Guards are posted at entrances to the Vatican City
to provide security and protect the Pope. Click to see a picture of the
Swiss Papal Guard uniform.
 |
Economics |
Labor force: |
Dignitaries, priests,
nuns, guards, and 3,000 lay workers who live outside the Vatican. |
Budget: |
Revenues: $245.2 million
1
Expenditures: $260.4 million, including capital expenditures (2002) |
Industry: |
Vatican City is landlocked
and has no arable land; most of the Vatican's expenses are met by "Peter's
Pence" (yearly, voluntary donations to the Holy See by the world's Catholics),
by printing, and by the making of mosaics. |
Economic Aid
Recipient: |
None |
Currency: |
Italian Lira (ITL); Euro
(EUR) |
Miscellaneous |
Internet country code:
|
.va |
Radio stations: |
AM 3, FM 4, shortwave
2 (1998) |
Television Broadcast stations:
|
1 |
Internet Hosts: |
9 |
Heliports: |
1 |
Railway Station:
|
St. Peter's Station connects
to Rome's railway network |
Emblems and Flags:
|
The crossed Keys in the
emblems and flags of the Holy See represent the Keys to the Kingdom given
to Peter by Christ; the tiara represents the authority of the Petrine Ministry.
|
National Anthem: |
"Hymn and Pontifical March"
Click here to hear melody, here for
English
Lyrics, and here
Italian
lyrics. |
History
Popes in their secular role
ruled large areas of what is now Italy for more than a thousand years until
the wars for the unification of Italy between 1869 and 1870, when many of
the Papal States were seized by the newly united Kingdom of Italy. In 1870,
the Pope's holdings were further circumscribed when Rome itself was annexed,
and disputes between Italy and a series of "Prisoner Popes" (the Popes between
17 October 1870 to 9 June 1929) were finally resolved in 1929 by three Lateran
Treaties, which established the independent State of Vatican City, a sovereign
and independent City State.
The difference between
the terms
"Holy See" and "Vatican City"
Though these terms are almost
always used interchangeably, "Holy See" refers to the composite of the authority,
jurisdiction, and sovereignty of the Pope and his advisers to direct the
worldwide Roman Catholic Church. As the "central government" of the Church,
the Holy See has a "legal personality" that allows it to enter into treaties
as the juridical equal of a state and to send and receive diplomatic
representatives. The "State of the Vatican City" was created in 1929 to
administer properties belonging to the Holy See and is recognized under
international law and enters into international agreements like any other
politically sovereign entity.
As always, "Rome" the city, "Rome" the hierarchy, must be differentiated
from "Eternal Rome," the home of the Church of Peter. It isn't the city of
Rome per se that is the seat of the Church as the papacy having been
centered for a while in Avignon demonstrates. Eternal Rome is the spiritual
and oh-so-real home whence Peter, the Saints, the great Doctors, and Apostolic
Truth come.
U.S. Residents: Visiting
Vatican City
To find out the particulars
of visiting Vatican City (the dates of papal addresses, Mass times, etc.),
contact:
Bishops' Office for United
States Visitors to the Vatican
North American College - Casa Santa Maria
Via dell'Umilta, 30 -- 00187 Rome, Italy
TEL 06/690.011
FAX 06/679.1448
Footnote:
1 Just for a comparison: Coca-Cola's CEO, Douglas
N. Daft, takes home $105 million; Enron's CEO, Ken Lay, exercised $123 million
in stock options in 2000, prior to the accounting scandal; General Electric's
CEO, John Welch Jr., gets a pension of almost $10 million annually for the
rest of his life. But it's Vatican City -- a city state all its own, with
a labor force of 3,000 and historic buildings and art that require upkeep
-- that gets accused of having all this wealth. Silliness!
Information in table adapted, in part, from the
CIA's
World Factbook |
|
