The Great Popularity of Vatican City Essay Example

the same date, the 5c, 10c, 20c, 30c, L2, and L2. 50 values were issued overprinted “SEGNATASSE” in black for use as postage due stamps (J1-6); the entire Conciliation series was also overprinted with the words “PER PACCHI” in black for use as parcel post stamps (Q1-Q15). 3 In 1934 and again in 1937, the six high values of the Conciliation issue were surcharged with new values (35-40).

Today, these two provisional overprints are the rarest of all Vatican stamps, and when purchased they should be expertised and accompanied by a certificate. The final overprinting of the Conciliation series was made in 1939 at the death of Pope Pius XI. The seven low values were overprinted "SEDE VACANTE / MCMXXXIX" (61-67) for postal use during the interregnum period preceding the election of a new pope. This inaugurated a tradition that has been observed at the death of every subsequent pope (see A Postal History of the Sede Vacante).

The Conciliation issue was replaced in 1933 by the so-called “Gardens and Medallions” set (19-34, E3-4) which pictures the arms of Pope Pius XI (5c); the Apostolic Palace and obelisk of Heliopolis (10c, 12? c, 20c, 25c); Vatican Gardens and Dome of St. Peter’s (30c, 50c, 75c, 80c); Pope Pius XI (L1, L1. 25, L2, L2. 75); and St. Peter’s Basilica (L5, L10, L20). The special delivery stamps, denominated at L2 and L2. 50, show an aerial view of Vatican City. Three definitive series, known collectively as the “Small Medallions,” were in use during the Second World War.

All three were printed from the same plates and picture the arms of Pope Pius XII and a profile photograph of the Pope by Luigi Baumgarten. The first Small Medallions (72-76), released on

12 March 1940, consisted of five stamps denominated at 5c, L1, L1. 25, L2, and L2. 75, all watermarked with the crossed keys of St. Peter. The second set of Small Medallions (91-98, E5-6) was released on 5 March 1945 and consisted of eight unwatermarked stamps in new colors with new face values. Two special delivery stamps were included in this series.

The third set (102-109, E7-8) was actually a second printing of the 5 March 1945 series surcharged with new values. III-DISCUSSIONS/RESULTS 4 A. History The Vatican City State, sovereign and independent, is the survivor of the papal states that in 1859 comprised an area of some 17,000 sq mi (44,030 sq km). During the struggle for Italian unification, from 1860 to 1870, most of this area became part of Italy. By an Italian law of May 13, 1871, the temporal power of the pope was abrogated, and the territory of the papacy was confined to the Vatican and Lateran palaces and the villa of Castel Gandolfo.

The popes consistently refused to recognize this arrangement. The Lateran Treaty of Feb. 11, 1929, between the Vatican and the kingdom of Italy, established the autonomy of the Holy See. The first session of Ecumenical Council Vatican II was opened by John XXIII on Oct. 11, 1962, to plan and set policies for the modernization of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI continued the council, presiding over the last three sessions. Vatican II, as it is called, revolutionized some of the church's practices.

Power was decentralized, giving bishops a larger role, the liturgy was vernacularized, and laymen were given a larger part in church affairs. On Aug. 26, 1978, Cardinal Albino Luciani was

chosen by the College of Cardinals to succeed Paul VI, who had died of a heart attack on Aug. 6. The new pope took the name John Paul I. Only 34 days after his election, John Paul I died of a heart attack, ending the shortest reign in 373 years. On Oct. 16, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, 58, was chosen pope and took the name John Paul II. Pope John Paul II became the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian pope since the 16th century.

Vatican City or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Citta del Vaticano is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of approximately 44 hectares (110 acres), and a population of just over 800. This makes Vatican City the smallest independent state in the world by both area and population. Vatican City was established in 1929 by the Lateran Treaty, signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri, on behalf of the Holy See and by Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on behalf of the Kingdom of Italy.

Vatican City State is distinct from the Holy See,[17] which dates back to early Christianity and is the main episcopal see of 1. 2 billion Latin and Eastern Catholic adherents around the globe. Ordinances of Vatican City are published in Italian; official documents of the Holy See are issued mainly in Latin. 5 In this originally uninhabited area (the ager vaticanus) on the opposite side of the Tiber from the city of Rome, Agrippina the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the hill and environs and built her gardens in the early 1st century AD. Emperor Caligula (31 August AD 12 – 24 January AD 41; r. 7–41) started construction of a circus (AD 40) that was later completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply, the Circus of Nero.

In AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, when the northern army that brought Aulus Vitellius to power arrived in Rome, "a large proportion camped in the unhealthy districts of the Vatican, which resulted in many deaths among the common soldiery; and the Tiber being close by, the inability of the Gauls and Germans to bear the heat and the consequent greed with which they drank from the stream weakened their bodies, which were already an easy prey to disease".

The Vatican obelisk was originally taken by Caligula from Heliopolis, Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant. This area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. 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. Funeral monuments and mausoleums and small tombs as well as altars to pagan gods of all kinds of polytheistic religions were constructed lasting until before the construction of the Constantinian Basilica of St.

Peter's in the first half of the 4th century. Remains of this ancient necropolis were brought to light sporadically during renovations by various popes throughout the centuries increasing in frequency during the Renaissance until it was systematically excavated by orders of Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1941. In 326, the first church, the Constantinian basilica, was built over the site that early Roman Catholic apologists (from the first century on) as well as noted Italian archaeologists argue was the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in a common cemetery on the spot.

From then on the area started to become more populated, but mostly only by dwelling houses connected with the activity of St. Peter's.

A palace was constructed near the site of the basilica as early as the 5th century during the pontificate of Pope Symmachus (reigned 498–514). Popes in their secular role gradually came to govern neighbouring regions and, through the Papal States, ruled a large portion of the Italian peninsula for more than a thousand years until the mid 19th century, when all of the territory of the Papal States was seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy.

For much of this time the Vatican was not the habitual residence of the Popes, but rather the Lateran Palace, and in recent centuries, the Quirinal Palace, while the residence from 1309–77 was at Avignon in France. 6 B. CULTURE The Vatican City is itself of great cultural significance. Buildings such as St. Peter's Basilica and the Sistine Chapel are home to some of the most famous art in the world, which includes works by artists such as Botticelli, Bernini and Michelangelo. The Vatican Library and the collections of the Vatican Museums are of the highest historical, scientific and cultural importance.

In 1984, the Vatican was added byUNESCO to the List of World Heritage Sites; it is the only one to consist of an entire country. The Vatican can be said to be the de facto custodian of the Latin language through its Latinitas Foundation. An important product of this foundation is the regular edition of the Latin lexicon of recent neologisms, the Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis. The permanent population of the Vatican City is predominately male, although two orders of nuns live in the Vatican.

A minority are senior Catholic clergy; the remainder are members of religious orders. Many workers and embassy personnel in the Vatican City live outside its walls. Tourism and pilgrimages are an important factor in the daily life of the Vatican. The Pope has weekly public audiences and celebrates public Mass and

other services, and imparts solemn blessings to "the City and the World" on Easter and Christmas, and immediately following his election as Pope. For significant events with large numbers of attendees, he concelebrates open-air Mass in Saint Peter's Square. 7

Vatican lifestyle is rather, well, religious, given that its nine hundred or so residents are mostly all high clergy representatives and live in what is, alongside Jerusalem and Mecca, one of the most important religious cities in the world. Itself a country, the Vatican is mostly perceived by incomers as a subsection of Rome . Home to popes, history, prophecy, and some of the most stunning art in the world, for all its spirituality, much of what makes the Vatican such a tourist magnet is what is on the outside. (Note: most of its non-tourist areas are off-limits to visitors. )

The Sistine Chapel , designed by a team of painters, is acclaimed primarily for its frescoes by Michelangelo, who did the super-famous ceiling, as well as other parts of the chapel. Nine panels held here depict the Christian take on man’s early history, from Creation to Noah. Having undergone a controversial restoration at the close of the last century, the Sistine Chapel stands to this day as the artistic gem of the Catholic community. The Raphael Rooms , also designed in the early part of the sixteenth century, fill an apartment with masterpiece artwork hard to rival anywhere else in the world.

About three centuries after these creations, Pope Gregory XVI founded the Gregorian Egyptian Museum , which houses artifacts and artworks from the ancient land of Pharaoh. Boasting nine rooms of exhibits and sculptures, it forms an excellent counterpart to the Etruscan Museum , also founded by Gregory

Sixteen and dedicated to the preservation of the cultural precursor to Rome. Home to a trove of archeological spectacle, the Etruscan collections are a must-see for anyone at all interested in ancient Roman history. C. GOVERNMENT SYSTEM The civil government of Vatican City is headed by the cardinal president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City, which is the state's legislature; the state is governed under the Fundamental Law of 2000. The legal system is based on canon law, and the courts are part of the judicial system of the church. The only court special to Vatican City is a court of first instance for civil and criminal cases arising in the city.

The Vatican is above all the seat of the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. Because of the papacy's vast interest in temporal as well as spiritual affairs, an elaborate bureaucracy has been developed over the course of centuries. The pope governs the church with the College of Cardinals. He may act as he chooses without their consent, but in practice he relies on the cardinals for advice as well as for administration of the church government. The whole administrative body surrounding the pope and responsible to him is called the Curia Romana.

The papal court long had all the characteristics of a royal court, such as elaborate rituals and uniforms, and complex rules of precedence; however, since the reign of Pope John XXIII (1958–63) and the Second Vatican Council, many of the Vatican ceremonies have been greatly simplified. The bodyguard of the pope is the corps of Swiss Guards, founded in the 16th cent. and made up of a small group of Roman Catholic Swiss. Its members

wear the splendid Renaissance uniforms designed by Michelangelo. 9 The politics of Vatican City takes place in an absolute elective monarchy, in which the head of the Roman Catholic Church takes power.

The Pope exercises principal legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of Vatican City (an entity distinct from the Holy See), which is a rare case of a non-hereditary monarchy. Vatican City is currently the only widely recognised independent state that has not become a member of the UN. The Holy See, which is distinct from Vatican City State, has permanent observer status with all the rights of a full member except for a vote in the UN General Assembly. The government of Vatican City has a unique structure. The Pope is the sovereign of the state.

Legislative authority is vested in the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, a body of cardinals appointed by the Pope for five-year periods. Executive power is in the hands of the President of that commission, assisted by the General Secretary and Deputy General Secretary. The state's foreign relations are entrusted to the Holy See's Secretariat of State and diplomatic service. Nevertheless, the pope has full and absolute executive, legislative and judicial power over Vatican City. He is currently the only absolute monarch in Europe. There are specific departments that deal with health, security, telecommunications, etc.

The Cardinal Camerlengo presides over the Apostolic Camera to which is entrusted the administration of the property and the protection of the temporal rights of the Holy See during a papal vacancy. Those of the Vatican State remain under the control of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City. Acting with three other cardinals chosen by lot every three days, one from each order of cardinals (cardinal bishop,

cardinal priest, and cardinal deacon), he in a sense performs during that period the functions of head of state. All the decisions these four cardinals take must be approved by the College of Cardinals as a whole. 0 The nobility that was closely associated with the Holy See at the time of the Papal States continued to be associated with the Papal Court after the loss of these territories, generally with merely nominal duties (see Papal Master of the Horse, Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, Hereditary officers of the Roman Curia, Black Nobility). They also formed the ceremonial Noble Guard. In the first decades of the existence of the Vatican City State, executive functions were entrusted to some of them, including that of Delegate for the State of Vatican City (now denominated President of the Commission for Vatican City).

But with the motu proprio Pontificalis Domus of 28 March 1968, Pope Paul VI abolished the honorary positions that had continued to exist until then, such as Quartermaster General and Master of the Horse. The State of the Vatican City, created in 1929 by the Lateran Pacts, provides the Holy See with a temporal jurisdiction and independence within a small territory. It is distinct from the Holy See. The state can thus be deemed a significant but not essential instrument of the Holy See.

The Holy See itself has existed continuously as a juridical entity since Roman Imperial times and has been internationally recognised as a powerful and independent sovereign entity since late antiquity to the present, without interruption even at times when it was deprived of territory (e. g. 1870 to 1929). The Holy See has the oldest active continuous diplomatic service in the world, dating back to at least AD 325 with its legation

to the Council of Nicea. [37] Ambassadors are accredited to the Holy See, never to the Vatican City State. IV-CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATIONS 1 A. CONCLUSION VATICAN CITY, 6 JUN 2011 (VIS) - Following is the communique issued today at the conclusion of the first phase of the apostolic visitation in Ireland. "In accordance with the time-scale indicated in the communique of 12 November 2010, the first phase of the Apostolic Visitation announced by the Holy Father in his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, in order to 'assist the local Church on her path of renewal' (19 March 2010, par. 14), has now been concluded. As indicated in the above-mentioned communique, the visitators set out to examine: ) 'whether the mutual relationship of the various components of the local Church, seminaries and religious communities is now in place, in order to sustain them on the path of profound spiritual renewal already being pursued by the Church in Ireland';  'the effectiveness of the present processes used in responding to cases of abuse';  'the current forms of assistance provided to the victims'. The visitation to the four metropolitan archdioceses, the seminaries and the religious institutes has been very useful, thanks to the cooperation of everyone who took part in this initiative.

The Holy Father's sincere thanks goes to them, especially to the four Metropolitan Archbishops. 12 The visitators' reports have been handed in to the competent dicasteries of the Holy See.

Individually, and in the context of interdicasterial meetings specially convened for the purpose and conducted in a constructive atmosphere, the dicasteries in question have carried out an initial evaluation, from which it emerges that:

1) As far as the Irish

dioceses and seminaries are concerned, the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Catholic Education do not envisage further Apostolic Visitations.

Having encountered various organizations and individuals, including the suffragan bishops, the visitators have been able to arrive at a sufficiently complete picture of the situation of the Irish Church with respect to the areas under investigation.

2) The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life has analyzed the responses to the questionnaires that were sent to all institutes with religious houses in Ireland. In accordance with the method previously adopted, visits 'in loco' to some religious communities will follow.

3) In the coming months, the competent dicasteries will give indications to the bishops for the spiritual renewal of the dioceses and seminaries, and the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will do likewise for the religious institutes.

4) By early 2012, the Holy See will publish an overall synthesis indicating the results and the future prospects highlighted by the Visitation, not least with a view to the nationwide mission announced in the above-mentioned letter of the Holy Father". 13 B. RECOMMENDATIONS VATICAN CITY — The Vatican has told bishops around the world that it is important to cooperate with police in reporting priests who rape and molest children and asked them to develop guidelines for preventing sex abuse by next May. But Monday's letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith made no provision to ensure the bishops actually follow the guidelines, and victims groups immediately denounced the recommendations as "dangerously flawed" because they stress the exclusive authority of bishops to determine the credibility of abuse allegations.

The

letter marks the latest effort by the Vatican to show that it is serious about rooting out pedophiles from the priesthood, a year after the sex abuse scandal exploded on a global scale with thousands of new victims coming forward in Europe and beyond. It is significant in that it marks a universal directive to all the world's bishops to establish "clear and coordinated procedures" with superiors of religious orders to deal with pedophiles and care for their victims.

It puts on paper that it is "important" for bishops to cooperate with police in investigating abuse allegations and that bishops should follow civil reporting laws where they exist. But the vague, nonbinding measure failed to impress advocates for victims who have long blamed bishops bent on protecting the church and its priests for fueling the scandal. Without fear of punishment themselves, bishops frequently moved pedophile priests from parish to parish rather than reporting them to police or punishing them under church law. There's nothing that will make a child safer today or tomorrow or next month or next year," said Barbara Dorris, outreach director for the main U. S. victims group Survivors Network for Those Abused by Priests. Critically, the letter reinforces bishops' exclusive authority in dealing with abuse cases. It says independent lay review boards that have been created in some countries to oversee the church's child protection policies and ensure compliance "cannot substitute" for bishops' judgment and power. Recently, such lay review committees in the U.

S. and Ireland, which act as a sort of check on bishops, have reported that some bishops "failed miserably" in following their own guidelines and thwarted the boards' work

by withholding information from them and by enacting legal hurdles that made ensuring compliance impossible. "Our central concern is that bishops and religious leaders retain enormous discretionary powers to decide if an allegation is credible," said Maeve Lewis, executive director of the Irish victims group One in Four.

Top of Form Bottom of Form "Clergymen do not have the skills or expertise to make sound decisions in this regard: that is a matter for law enforcement and child protection specialists," Lewis said, calling the Vatican letter "dangerously flawed. " The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the document's emphasis on the central authority of bishops wasn't a negative commentary on the role of lay review boards but rather a reminder of the "great responsibility" bishops have in dealing with abuse cases as heads of their dioceses.

Lombardi explained that the Vatican didn't make reporting abuse cases to police mandatory on bishops because different countries have different laws that bishops must abide by. The Vatican has said such a binding reporting rule would be problematic for priests working in countries with repressive regimes. The letter tells the bishops' conferences to consult with superiors of religious orders and draft guidelines and report them back to the Congregation by May 2012.

It says bishops should be prepared to listen to victims, to create "safe environment" programs for minors and to better screen seminarians and ensure they receive proper training about celibacy and the damage done to victims of sex abuse. It stresses that all accused priests are presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Lombardi emphasized that the letter issued Monday was not designed to offer specific, binding recommendations to bishops since

their situations are all different.

Rather, the aim is to offer a "common, substantial denominator of fundamental principles and observations that everyone can take into account in making policies that are adapted for their situations. " Many bishops' conferences have already drafted guidelines; one glaring example of a country that hasn't is Italy, home of the Vatican, where just Sunday the country's top cardinal informed the faithful of Genoa diocese that a longtime pastor in a Genoa suburb has been jailed for allegedly abusing a 16-year-old boy and giving him drugs. Lombardi said he expects the Italian bishops conference to now come up with conference-wide guidelines.

The letter is being issued at a time when the sex abuse guidelines of the U. S. bishops have been put into question after a Philadelphia grand jury earlier this year indicted a high-ranking church official on child endangerment charges for allegedly transferring predator priests. Four co-defendants – two priests, an ex-priest and a former Catholic school teacher – are charged with raping children. The grand jury found "substantial evidence of abuse" committed by at least 37 other priests who remained in active ministry at the time of the report.

Philadelphia's archbishop, Cardinal Justin Rigali, initially insisted that no archdiocesan priests in ministry had an "admitted or established allegation" against them. But he later suspended two dozen of the 37 priests. The archdiocese says many of the 37 were 15 accused not of actual molestation but alleged violations of so-called "boundary issues," including inappropriate touching or sharing pornography with minors.

Last week, the head of the Philadelphia archdiocese's lay review board publicly accused Rigali and his bishops of having "failed miserably at being

open and transparent" because they prescreened which cases the board reviewed and left out crucial information for some priests they did review. In Ireland, the National Board for Safeguarding Children, a church-appointed independent panel overseeing compliance with Ireland's guidelines, said in its annual report last week that it was prevented from fulfilling its mandate to review diocesan responses to abuse cases because bishops mounted legal questions about the riests' privacy. The U. S. norms, which have been held up by the Vatican as a model, bar credibly accused priests from any public church work, if sufficient evidence is found that they abused a minor. Clergy found guilty are permanently barred from public ministry and, in some cases, ousted from the priesthood. The Philadelphia scandal exposed some of the loopholes in the Vatican-approved U. S. norms that leave it entirely up to bishops to determine whether there is "sufficient evidence" to warrant withdrawing accused priests from ministry.

While the new Vatican document confirms that, and seemingly diminishes the importance of lay review boards in assisting bishops in making that determination, it does say bishops are "always able to limit the exercise of the cleric's ministry until the accusations are clarified," though it doesn't say they must. Nicholas Cafardi, a canon lawyer who was chairman of the U. S. bishops' child protection board that drafted the U. S. orms, said the Vatican's letter is a step forward in that it treats abuse as a universal problem that requires a universal response by bishops. "The problem is that 'guidelines' are not the same as 'norms,'" he said. "Who polices these guidelines should a bishop chose to ignore them? "

Terence McKiernan, president of BishopAccountability. org, an online data center that tracks abuse, said the Vatican letter merely confirms the "dangerous loopholes" in the U. S. norms that allowed the Philadelphia scandal to occur. Today's Circular Letter likely will cause bishops' conferences worldwide to create policies that preserve the power of bishops to handle allegations of clergy sexual abuse, and that allow priests with admitted or established allegations to remain in ministry," he said.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Vatican_City Read more: Vatican City (Holy See): Maps, History, Geography, Government, Culture, Facts, Guide & Travel/Holidays/Cities — Infoplease. com http://www. infoplease. com/ipa/A0108136. html#ixzz1nlwTL1BG Read more: Vatican City: History —