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Vatican
Flag
National
Arms
Benedict XVI's Personal Arms
Flag
of the Swiss Guard
Vatican Links
Vatican Website
Vatican News Service
Tour of Holy See
Vatican Museums
Sistine Chapel
La
Guardia Svizzera Pontificia
Vatican Weather:
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The Holy See (State of
the Vatican City)
Santa Sede (Stato della Citta del Vaticano)
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Area:
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0.17
sq mi (0.44 sq km) or 108.7 acres |
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Population:
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921
(July 2004 est.) |
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Language:
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Latin
(official -- even bank machines have a Latin option); Italian |
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Time Zone:
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GMT
+1 (GMT +2 during the summer) |
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Climate:
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temperate;
mild, rainy winters (September to mid-May) with hot, dry summers (May
to September) |
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Government
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Type:
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Ecclesiastical
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Constitution:
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Apostolic
Constitution of 1967 (effective 1 March 1968) |
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Executive branch:
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Chief
of State: the Pope
Cabinet: Pontifical Commission appointed by the Pope
Elections: Pope elected for life by the College of Cardinals; Secretary
of State appointed by the Pope |
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Legislative branch:
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Unicameral
Pontifical Commission |
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Judicial branch:
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None;
normally handled by Italy |
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Diplomacy:
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The
Holy See has formal diplomatic relations with 166 nations |
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International
organization participation:
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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) |
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Defense:
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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.  |
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Economics
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Labor force:
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Dignitaries,
priests, nuns, guards, and 3,000 lay workers who live outside the
Vatican. |
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Budget:
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Revenues:
$245.2 million 1
Expenditures: $260.4 million, including capital expenditures (2002) |
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Industry:
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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. |
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Economic Aid Recipient:
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None |
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Currency:
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Italian
Lira (ITL); Euro (EUR) |
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Miscellaneous
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Internet country code:
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.va |
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Radio stations:
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AM
3, FM 4, shortwave 2 (1998) |
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Television Broadcast
stations:
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1
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Internet Hosts:
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9 |
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Heliports:
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1
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Railway Station:
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St.
Peter's Station connects to Rome's railway network |
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Emblems and Flags:
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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. |
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National Anthem:
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"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 juridicial
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
To contact the Pope:
His
Holiness Pope __________
00120 Vatican City, Italy, Europe
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
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