From the highest crime rate in the world to sharing confidential documents, here are 10
things you didn't know about the Vatican.
10.)
Exorcisms The Catholic Church has been performing exorcisms
for at least hundreds of years and in the past, any one who was a Christian could perform
one, since it was believed that every Christian had to the power to command demons and drive
them out.
However, this is also something they do not like talking about.
In 1982, Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism on a young woman named Francesca Fabrizi from
Italy who claimed to be possessed.
During the exorcism, she writhed on the ground and cried out.
The Pope said he would say mass for her the next day, which apparently cured her.
Eventually, she married and had children.
John Paul's second exorcism occurred in 2000.
This one did not fare as well.
When the woman saw Pope John Paul she began to wail.
Ten people had to hold her down.
She wanted to fling herself at the Pope and attack him.
Her face was full of hate and she was drooling and uttering blasphemies.
A witness claimed that her body began to tremble and looked like a beast ready to attack.
Her eyes were two white orbs and as soon as she was brought close to the Pope she started
yelling 'No, leave me alone!'
The pope carried out the exorcism immediately, blessing her several times and then leaving.
The next day, the woman went to see a priest who noticed she was very agitated.
It took several sessions for the woman to be cleansed of demons.
Scientists and most people in the modern era frown upon this practice because possession
could actually be a form of mental illness.
In the past, people with Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia or many other disorders had
to suffer brutal treatments in the name of removing the demons.
However, the Catholic Church is now creating a new army of highly trained exorcists to
battle the rise of requested exorcisms because more people than ever are dabbling in the
dark arts on the internet.
9.)
Crime Rate The Vatican City only has a population of
801 people as of Jan 2018.
With 1.5 crimes per citizen, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world.
And it's not even the ones who live in the city that contribute to most of the crime.
It's the tourists.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the Vatican has no working prison and only
one judge.
Therefore, most criminals are simply marched across the border into Italy, as part of an
agreement between the two countries.
Most of the Vatican's legal code is based on Italy's so it is easy for them to send
lawbreakers across the border.
The only difference are the laws pertaining to divorce and abortion.
However, there are some crimes that the Vatican officials will take care of themselves, such
as shoplifting.
The city is known to be a pick pocketer's paradise (so hang on to your wallets and purses
if you go visit!).
These crimes are usually punishable by temporarily revoking the troublemaker's access to those
areas, so there is no real solution.
While most crimes involve theft, other serious crimes also occur.
For example, in 1998, a newly appointed commander of the Pope's Swiss Guard and his wife were
murdered in their apartment.
This led to many conspiracy theories.
Another example of major crime occurred in 2007 when the Vatican issued its first drug
conviction after an employee was found with a few ounces of cocaine in his desk.
Many other crimes that occur within the Vatican itself are kept confidential.
8.)
The Pope and Social Media Would you want to text the Pope?
Reportedly, the Pope and texting started with Pope Benedict XVI (16th).
In 2009, the Vatican opened up an official YouTube channel to show various Papal addresses
and ceremonies.
The Vatican even released an iPhone application that contains multilingual versions of the
Breviary prayer book and the prayers of daily mass.
And then, a couple months before Pope Benedict's XVI's resignation, he joined Twitter.
Pope Francis is carrying on the tradition of @Pontifex, the official Papal Twitter account.The
Vatican has decided that the value of Twitter and social media has much more pros than cons.
The Instagram account was launched in 2016.
It hit 1 million followers in less than 12 hours.
The Vatican's enthusiasm for technology isn't limited to cell phones and the internet.
It has also added solar panels to the roof of the Pope's auditorium as part of its
commitment to fight climate change.
The Vatican is trying to keep up with the times!
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7.)
The Apostolic Penitentiary A priest can forgive most sins that you commit
at the Vatican if you ask for forgiveness.
While a priest can forgive you if you commit murder (and not have to tell the police) there
are five other confessions that are so terrible, you cannot be forgiven.
Instead, inside the Vatican, they have a secret tribunal called The Apostolic Penitentiary,
which looks at cases involving these sins.
This secretive tribunal has met off and on for the past 830 years.
However, in 2009, the Catholic Church made a huge step towards transparency and revealed
the nature of these sins.
It should be noted that three out of the five sins they contemplate can only be committed
by the clergy.
One of the three is if a priest reveals a sin (and the person who committed the sin)
that they hear in confession.
The second sin is, they can't have sex with someone and then offer confession to their
sexual partner.
Finally, a man who wants to be a priest or a deacon can't be directly involved with
an abortion.
An example of this would be paying for the procedure.
The other two sins can be committed by anyone.
The first sin is desecrating the Eucharist because Catholics believe that it is the actual
body and blood of Christ.
To Catholics, fooling around with this is like fooling around with Jesus, which is not
something you want to do.
The second sin is trying to kill the Pope.
6.)
The Vatican Bank and Nazi Gold In 1997, you might remember documents that
were released declaring that the Vatican Banks and the Nazi's were working together, even
though they were natural enemies during World War II.
This document said the Vatican bank held 200 million francs, which is about $254 million
in today's standards.
The source states that money was later funneled through something called the "Vatican pipeline"
to Argentina and Spain, where it was given to Nazis who fled prosecution for war crimes.
Furthermore, The Vatican Bank also apparently funneled money that was stolen from Serbs
and Jews by the Ustasha, who was a Nazi puppet regime in Croatia.
After World War II, the Ustasha, which was considered a terrorist organization before
and during WWII, began stealing from the victims of their ethnic cleansing campaigns.
They were fascist, racist, ultranationalist, and very scary.
They then smuggled 350 million Swiss francs, which is now worth about $440 million, out
of Yugoslavia through the Vatican.
The money was then used to support the murderous Ustasha while they were in exile.
5.)
The Banco Ambrosiano Scandal The Banco Ambrosiano was one of the biggest
private banks in Italy which collapsed.
The bank was in debt with about 1.4 billion dollars when the scandal broke out.
Shortly afterward, Roberto Calvi, who was the general manager of the bank, was found
hanging from under the bridge in London in 1982.
To make things more interesting, a friend of Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was also found
with Calvi.
Marcinkus was the President of the Vatican Bank from 1971 into the 1980s.
At first, people believed it was suicide, but then it was considered to be a homicide.
And many people started wondering if Marcinkus and the Vatican Bank were involved.
It turns out that the main shareholder in the bank was the Vatican, and they had funneled
a billion dollars from the bank into 10 shell companies.
On top of this, a rumor began going around that other shareholders with the bank were
involved in organized crime and some were even members of a secret Masonic lodge.
When officials tried to interview Marcinkus about the murder, he became very uncooperative.
He refused to leave the Vatican, and even refused to answer questions, citing diplomatic
immunity.
Boy if I had a nickel….for more stories of people abusing diplomatic immunity just
check out this video!!!
Marcinkus was eventually indicted but the charges were dropped.
In the end, five people were charged with the crime but they were all acquitted.
4.)
Relations with the Mafia On the morning of September 29, 1978, Pope
John Paul I was found dead, sitting up in his bed, after only 33 days in office.
While officials claimed that he died of a heart attack, an autopsy was never performed.
Curiously enough, during the time of John Paul I's death, people suspected the Vatican
had ties to organized crime.
Then, in 1982, it became public that the Vatican had ties to the mafia.
These events made people start to wonder if Pope John Paul I really died of a heart attack
or if there was something else, a bit more sinister, that went on.
In the end, the Vatican Bank had to repay around $200 million to its creditors.
And while some reports say that Paul Marcinkus, who was the Bank's President at the time,
resigned, he was never charged for any crime, even though it was speculated that he was
connected to Pope John Paul I's death.
Reportedly, Marcinkus was able to obtain immunity in 1990 when he moved to Arizona.
3.)
Retiring Popes Once the Pope is elected, they are supposed
to stay in that position until they die.
However, did you know they do not have to be?
However, if the Pope retires, it is comparable to a parent giving up its children.
It is very rare for a Pope to retire or resign but we have already been witness to this in
our lifetime.
But, in the last 1,000 years, only 5 out of 123 Popes have done so.
The first Pope to do so takes the title of the youngest Pope to grab the hat.
Benedict IX (9th) was about 20 years old when he became Pope.
At first, he was forced out of the Papacy in 1036, but returned just months later and
became Pope again.
However, then he decided he wanted to get married.
So he ended up selling the Papacy to the man who became his successor, Pope Gregory VI,
in May 1045.
However, the woman was not interested in him so he turned around and became Pope once more
in 1047.
A year later he was excommunicated for causing so much drama!
The second Pope to resign was the man who bought the Papacy, Pope Gregory VI, who stepped
down at the urging of the Bishops.
He denied any wrongdoing but resigned nevertheless in 1046.
The third Pope to resign was Pope Celestine V in 1294.
And he did so just because he could.
He was only Pope for about 5 months.
The fourth Pope, Pope Gregory XII, stepped down because at the time there were two Popes
and they wanted to go back to one.
Finally, Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013, claiming that he was in poor health.
2.)
You Can Read the Pope's Mail While the Vatican's secret archives have
not truly been a secret since the late 1800s, it has become more accessible over the years.
Outsiders are free to examine the correspondences of every pope for the past 1,000 years, although
there is one catch: Guests have to know exactly what they're looking for.
It is stated there are about 52 miles of collections in the archives and there is strictly no browsing.
Therefore, if you do not know the exact document you are looking for, you won't be able to
discover anything by accident.
The most famous letter there is, is probably Henry VIII's request that his marriage to
Catherine of Aragon be annulled, which Pope Clement VII denied.
Henry divorced Catherine anyway and married Anne Boleyn, leading to the break of England
with the Catholic Church in Rome.
1.)
Swiss Bodyguards When you think of the Swiss now, you probably
think of being neutral and pacifism.
However, back in the 1500s, the Swiss were actually considered an unstoppable military
force.
Swiss armies were renowned for their mastery of a weapon called the halberd, a deadly combination
of a spear and an ax, and their ground troops were famous for routinely demolishing legions
of enemies on horseback.
After Pope Julius II witnessed their ferocity in battle 500 years ago, he recruited a few
soldiers to become his personal bodyguards.
Ever since then, Swiss Guards have pledged loyalty to the pope and many have even died
for him.
During the sacking of Rome in 1527, three-quarters of them were killed while providing cover
for Pope Clement VII to escape.
Today, you might see the Swiss Guard spend most of their time bedecked in Renaissance
garb, twirling their halberds in ceremonies or manning checkpoints around the Vatican.
However, if you see them actually protecting the Pope, they will be dressed in plain clothing
and carrying modern weapons.
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