1.
Vatican City
–
Vatican City, officially Vatican City State or the State of Vatican City, is a walled enclave within the city of Rome. With an area of approximately 44 hectares, and a population of 842, however, formally it is not sovereign, with sovereignty being held by the Holy See, the only entity of public international law that has diplomatic relations with almost every country in the world. It is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the Bishop of Rome – the Pope, the highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Vatican City is distinct from the Holy See, which dates back to early Christianity and is the episcopal see of 1.2 billion Latin. According to the terms of the treaty, the Holy See has full ownership, exclusive dominion, within Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peters Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the worlds most famous paintings and sculptures, the unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and tourist mementos, fees for admission to museums, and the sale of publications. The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, the name is taken from Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state. Vatican is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the area the Romans called vaticanus ager. The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City officially uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ, this is used in documents by not just the Holy See. The name Vatican was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for an area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers that was completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply. Even before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this originally uninhabited part of Rome had long considered sacred. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby, the particularly low quality of Vatican water, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial. The Vatican Obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant and this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD64. Ancient tradition holds that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down, opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Peters in the first half of the 4th century, the Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery
2.
Pope
–
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church. The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, the office of the pope is the papacy. The pope is considered one of the worlds most powerful people because of his diplomatic and he is also head of state of Vatican City, a sovereign city-state entirely enclaved within the Italian capital city of Rome. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in world history, the popes in ancient times helped in the spread of Christianity and the resolution of various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of importance in Western Europe. Currently, in addition to the expansion of the Christian faith and doctrine, the popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers. In recent centuries, popes were gradually forced to give up temporal power, the word pope derives from Greek πάππας meaning father. The earliest record of the use of title was in regard to the by then deceased Patriarch of Alexandria. Some historians have argued that the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, the writings of the Church Father Irenaeus who wrote around AD180 reflect a belief that Peter founded and organised the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peters presence in the early Roman Church, Clement of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians, c. 96, about the persecution of Christians in Rome as the struggles in our time and presented to the Corinthians its heroes, first, the greatest and most just columns, the good apostles Peter and Paul. St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement and in his letter from the city of Smyrna to the Romans he said he would not command them as Peter and Paul did. Given this and other evidence, many agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero. Protestants contend that the New Testament offers no proof that Jesus established the papacy nor even that he established Peter as the first bishop of Rome, others, using Peters own words, argue that Christ intended himself as the foundation of the church and not Peter. First-century Christian communities would have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as leaders of their local churches, gradually, episcopacies were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome, some writers claim that the emergence of a single bishop in Rome probably did not occur until the middle of the 2nd century. In their view, Linus, Cletus and Clement were possibly prominent presbyter-bishops, documents of the 1st century and early 2nd century indicate that the Holy See had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, though the detail of what this meant is unclear. It seems that at first the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, the consensus among scholars has been that, at the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters whose offices were overlapping or indistinguishable
3.
Pope Francis
–
Pope Francis is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and sovereign of Vatican City. He chose Francis as his name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bergoglio worked briefly as a chemical technologist and he was ordained a Catholic priest in 1969, and from 1973 to 1979 was Argentinas provincial superior of the Society of Jesus. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and was created a cardinal in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and he led the Argentine Church during the December 2001 riots in Argentina, and the administrations of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner considered him a political rival. Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on 28 February 2013, throughout his public life, Pope Francis has been noted for his humility, emphasis on Gods mercy, concern for the poor, populist causes and commitment to interfaith dialogue. He maintains that the church should be open and welcoming. He does not support unbridled capitalism, Marxism, or Marxist versions of liberation theology, Francis maintains the traditional views of the church regarding abortion, euthanasia, contraception, homosexuality, ordination of women, and priestly celibacy. He opposes consumerism, irresponsible development, and supports taking action on climate change, in international diplomacy, he helped to restore full diplomatic relations between the U. S. and Cuba. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on 17 December 1936 in Flores and he was the eldest of five children of Mario José Bergoglio and Regina María Sívori. Mario Bergoglio was an Italian immigrant accountant born in Portacomaro in Italys Piedmont region, Regina Sívori was a housewife born in Buenos Aires to a family of northern Italian origin. Mario Josés family left Italy in 1929, to escape the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, María Elena Bergoglio, the Popes only living sibling, confirmed that their emigration was not for economic reasons. His other siblings were Alberto Horacio, Oscar Adrián and Marta Regina, two great-nephews, Antonio and Joseph, died in a traffic collision. In the sixth grade, Bergoglio attended Wilfrid Barón de los Santos Ángeles and he attended the technical secondary school Escuela Técnica Industrial N°27 Hipólito Yrigoyen, named after a past President of Argentina, and graduated with a chemical technicians diploma. He worked for a few years in that capacity in the section at Hickethier-Bachmann Laboratory where his boss was Esther Ballestrino. Before joining the Jesuits, Bergoglio worked as a bar bouncer and as a janitor sweeping floors, in the only known health crisis of his youth, at the age of 21 he suffered from life-threatening pneumonia and three cysts. He had part of a lung excised shortly afterwards, Bergoglio has been a lifelong supporter of San Lorenzo de Almagro football club. Bergoglio is also a fan of the films of Tita Merello, neorealism, Bergoglio found his vocation to the priesthood while he was on his way to celebrate the Spring Day. He passed by a church to go to confession, and was inspired by the priest
4.
Pietro Parolin
–
Pietro Parolin is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He has served as the Secretary of State since 15 October 2013 and he was elevated to the cardinalate on 22 February 2014. Parolin was born in Schiavon, Province of Vicenza, as the son of a store manager. He has one sister and a brother, when he was ten years old, his father died in a car accident. After he was ordained on 27 April 1980, he took up studies in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He entered the Holy Sees diplomatic service in 1986 at the age of 31 and he served for three years in the Nunciature of Nigeria and another three in the Nunciature of Mexico. In Nigeria he became familiar with the problems in Christian-Muslim relations and these laborious negotiations led to Mexico officially shedding the country’s secular and anti-clerical imprint, which extended to its Constitution. In Rome he was as director for Spain, Andorra, Italy. He speaks native Italian, fluent English and French, and near-native Spanish, Parolin has also been at the forefront of Vatican efforts to approve and implement the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Addressing the International Atomic Energy Agency on 18 September 2006, at its headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Parolin referred to this treaty as the basis to pursue nuclear disarmament and an important element for further development of nuclear energy applications for peaceful purposes. He said, Since this treaty is the only multilateral legal instrument currently available, intended to bring about a nuclear weapons-free world, humanity deserves no less than the full cooperation of all states in this important matter. In 2005 Msgr Parolin was awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, in September 2007 at the opening of the UN he argued that, We often hear in the halls of the United Nations of the responsibility to protect. The Holy See believes that applies also in the context of climate change, at the beginning of Pope Benedicts pontificate, direct contact was re-established with China. It was in context that Benedict XVI sent Chinese Catholics the June 2007 Letter. On 17 August 2009 Pope Benedict XVI appointed Msgr, Parolin to a new position as apostolic nuncio to Venezuela. Talks between the government and Vatican have been held since 1990, Vietnam has one of Asias largest Catholic populations, with more than 6 million followers. In the latest round of talks, a senior Vatican delegation spent the week in Vietnam meeting with Hanoi officials in the hope of laying the groundwork for formal diplomatic relations. During the meeting, the two sides held in-depth and comprehensive discussions on bilateral relations, including issues related to the Catholic Church in Vietnam, the two sides also acknowledged the encouraging development in the relations between Vietnam and the Holy See since 1990
5.
Papal conclave
–
A papal conclave is a meeting of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a new Bishop of Rome, also known as the Pope. The pope is considered by Roman Catholics to be the successor of Saint Peter. The conclave has been the procedure for choosing the pope for almost a thousand years, conclaves are now held in the Sistine Chapel of the Apostolic Palace. Since the Apostolic Age, the Bishop of Rome, like other bishops, was chosen by the consensus of the clergy, the body of electors was more precisely defined when, in 1059, the College of Cardinals was designated the sole body of electors. Since then, other details of the process have developed, in 1970, Pope Paul VI limited the electors to cardinals under 80 years of age. A two-thirds supermajority vote is required to elect the new pope, the procedures relating to the election of the pope have undergone almost two millennia of development. As the Christian communities became established they started to elect bishops, chosen by the clergy and laity of the community with the assistance of the bishops of neighbouring dioceses. St. Cyprian says that Pope Cornelius was chosen Bishop of Rome by the decree of God and of His Church, by the testimony of all the clergy, by the college of aged bishops. As was true for bishops of dioceses, the clergy of the Diocese of Rome was the electoral body for the Bishop of Rome. Instead of casting votes, the bishop was selected by consensus or by acclamation. The candidate would then be submitted to the people for their approval or disapproval. This lack of precision in the election procedures occasionally gave rise to rival popes or antipopes. The right of the laity to refuse the person elected was abolished by a Synod held in the Lateran in 769, the pope was also subjected to oaths of loyalty to the Holy Roman Emperor, whose task it was to provide security and public peace in Rome. The cardinal bishops were to meet first and discuss the candidates before summoning the cardinal priests, through much of the Middle Ages and Renaissance there were a small number of cardinals, down to as few as seven under either Pope Alexander IV or Pope John XXI. Difficult travel further reduced the number arriving at the conclave, with a small electorate an individual vote was significant, and was not easily shaken from familial or political lines. Conclaves could last months and even years, lengthy elections resumed and continued to be the norm until 1294, when a Benedictine hermit was elected Pope Celestine V. Celestine reinstated the strict conclave, but soon resigned the papacy. Beginning with Pope John XXIIIs attempts to broaden the representation of nations in the College of Cardinals, though this remains the theoretical limit, John Paul II exceeded this for short periods of time with knowledge of impending retirements. Originally, lay status did not bar election to the Bishop of Rome, Bishops of dioceses were sometimes elected while still catechumens, such as the case of St. Ambrose
6.
History of the papacy
–
The history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church, according to Catholic doctrine, spans from the time of Peter to the present day. During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome enjoyed no temporal power until the time of Constantine, over time, the papacy consolidated its territorial claims to a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculum obscurum, the Crescentii era, from 1048 to 1257, the papacy experienced increasing conflict with the leaders and churches of the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. The latter culminated in the East–West Schism, dividing the Western Church, from 1257–1377, the pope, though the bishop of Rome, resided in Viterbo, Orvieto, and Perugia, and then Avignon. The return of the popes to Rome after the Avignon Papacy was followed by the Western Schism, the Renaissance Papacy is known for its artistic and architectural patronage, forays into European power politics, and theological challenges to papal authority. After the start of the Protestant Reformation, the Reformation Papacy, the popes during the Age of Revolution witnessed the largest expropriation of wealth in the churchs history, during the French Revolution and those that followed throughout Europe. The Roman Question, arising from Italian unification, resulted in the loss of the Papal States, Catholics recognize the pope as the successor to Saint Peter, whom Jesus designated as the rock upon which the Church was to be built. Although Peter never bore the title of pope, Catholics recognize him as the first pope and Bishop of Rome, because he had the office, protestants tend to deny that Peter and those claimed to be his immediate successors had universally recognized supreme authority over all the early churches. Many popes in the first three centuries of the Christian era are obscure figures, several suffered martyrdom along with members of their flock in periods of persecution. Most of them engaged in intense arguments with other bishops. None of this, however, has much to do with the pope, who did not even attend the Council, in fact. The Donation of Constantine, an 8th-century forgery used to enhance the prestige, the legend of the Donation claims that Constantine offered his crown to Sylvester I, and even that Sylvester baptized Constantine. In reality, Constantine was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop, although the Donation never occurred, Constantine did hand over the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome, and began the construction of Old St. Peters Basilica. The gift of the Lateran probably occurred during the reign of Miltiades, predecessor to Sylvester I, Old St. Peters was begun between 326 and 330 and took three decades to complete. The Ostrogothic Papacy period ran from 493 to 537, the papal election of March 483 was the first to take place without the existence of a Western Roman emperor. The papacy was strongly influenced by the Ostrogothic Kingdom, if the pope was not outright appointed by the Ostrogothic King, the selection and administration of popes during this period was strongly influenced by Theodoric the Great and his successors Athalaric and Theodahad. This period terminated with Justinian Is conquest of Rome during the Gothic War, the role of the Ostrogoths became clear in the first schism, when, on November 22,498, two men were elected pope. The subsequent triumph of Pope Symmachus over Antipope Laurentius is the first recorded example of simony in papal history, Theodoric was tolerant towards the Catholic Church and did not interfere in dogmatic matters
7.
Papal States
–
The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
8.
Capture of Rome
–
On 27 March 1861, the Parliament declared Rome the capital of the Kingdom of Italy. However, the Italian government could not take its seat in Rome because it did not control the territory. In addition, a French garrison was maintained in the city by Napoleon III of France in support of Pope Pius IX, who was determined not to hand over temporal power in the States of the Church. In July 1870, at the very last moment of the Churchs rule over Rome, in July 1870, the Franco-Prussian War began. In early August, Napoleon III recalled his garrison from Rome, in the earlier Austro-Prussian War Italy had allied with Prussia and Italian public opinion favoured the Prussian side at the start of the war. The removal of the French garrison eased tensions between Italy and France, Italy remained neutral in the Franco-Prussian War. With the French garrison gone, widespread public demonstrations demanded that the Italian government take Rome, but Rome remained under French protection on paper, therefore an attack would still have been regarded as an act of war against the French Empire. Until events elsewhere took their course the Italians were unwilling to provoke Napoleon, the new French government was clearly in no position to retaliate against Italy, nor did it possess the political will to protect the Popes position. Along with the letter, the count carried a document that Lanza had prepared, the Pope would retain the inviolability and prerogatives attaching to him as a sovereign. The Leonine City would remain under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the Pontiff. According to Raffaele De Cesare, The Pope’s reception of San Martino was unfriendly, Pius IX allowed violent outbursts to escape him. Throwing the King’s letter upon the table he exclaimed, Fine loyalty and you are all a set of vipers, of whited sepulchres, and wanting in faith. He was perhaps alluding to other letters received from the King, after, growing calmer, he exclaimed, I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, but I tell you, you will never enter Rome. San Martino was so mortified that he left the next day, several times during his pontificate, Pius IX considered leaving Rome. As the frequency of protests against the Papal States increased across the Italian peninsula. Palma, a prelate, who was standing at a window, was shot. On February 9,1849, democratic revolutionaries of the new Italian republic seized Rome, on 12 April 1850, Pius IX returned to Rome, no longer a political liberal supporting constitutional republics. A later occurrence was in 1862, when Giuseppe Garibaldi was in Sicily gathering volunteers for a campaign to take Rome under the slogan Roma o Morte
9.
Vatican City in World War II
–
Vatican City pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II, under the leadership of Pope Pius XII. Although the city of Rome was occupied by Germany from 1943, the Vatican organised extensive humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the conflict. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 with Italy recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City and it declared Vatican City a neutral country in international relations, and required the Pope to abstain even from mediation unless requested by all parties. In 1939, the city state was recognized by thirty-eight nations, with a corps of thirteen full ambassadors. As early as April 1939, Pius XII announced a plan for peace, the first leader contacted was Benito Mussolini, via Pius XIIs usual go-between, Jesuit Father Tacchi Venturi. With Mussolinis approval, the next day Cardinal Secretary of State Luigi Maglione contacted the nuncios in Paris, Warsaw, and Berlin and the Apostolic Delegate in London. The proposed Vatican meeting accomplished little of substance, if there was any coherent position espoused by the Vatican among its various communications. In his 24 August 1939 Radio Message, just a week before war, Pius warned, The danger is imminent, nothing is lost with peace, all can be lost with war. With Poland overrun, but France and the Low Countries yet to be attacked, despite the early collapse of peace hopes, the Taylor mission continued at the Vatican. Early on, Pius XII believed that the destruction of Poland meant the end of the war. Summi Pontificatus, issued 20 October 1939, was the first papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, According to Chadwick, Summi Pontificatus exemplified both the hesitancy and the care of the pontiff. During the drafting of the letter, the Second World War commenced with the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Catholic Poland, with Italy not yet an ally of Hitler in the war, Italians were called upon to remain faithful to the Church. The Pope wrote of anti-Christian movements bringing forth a crop poignant disasters and called for love, mercy and compassion against the deluge of discord. Following themes addressed in Non abbiamo bisogno, Mit brennender Sorge and Divini redemptoris, misled by error, passion, temptation and prejudice, have strayed away from faith in the true God. Against the invasion of Poland and killing of civilians he wrote, In Poland, in 1942, Pius XII delivered a Christmas message over Vatican Radio, which voiced concern for the victims of the Nazis genocidal policies. From May 1942, the Nazis had commenced their industrialized slaughter of the Jews of Europe - the Final Solution, gypsies and others were also marked for extermination. The Pope addressed the racial persecutions in the terms, The New York Times called Pius a lonely voice crying out of the silence of a continent. The speech was made in the context of the total domination of Europe by the armies of Nazi Germany
