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Selected article 1

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/1

The Vatican Secret Archives (Latin: Archivum Secretum Vaticanum), located in Vatican City, is the central repository for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See. The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, having primal incumbency until death, owns the archives until the next appointed Papal successor. The archives also contain the state papers, correspondence, papal account books, and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope Paul V, the Secret Archives were separated from the Vatican Library, where scholars had some very limited access to them, and remained absolutely closed to outsiders until 1881, when Pope Leo XIII opened them to researchers, of whom now more than a thousand examine its documents each year.

The use of the word "secret" in the title "Vatican Secret Archives" does not denote the modern meaning of confidentiality. Instead, it indicates that the archives are the Pope's personal property, not belonging to those of any particular department of the Roman Curia or the Holy See. The word "secret" was generally used in this sense as also reflected in phrases such as "secret servants", "secret cupbearer", "secret carver", much like an esteemed position of honor and regard comparable to a VIP.

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Selected article 2

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The Vatican Apostolic Library (Latin: Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly called simply the Vatican Library, is the library of the Holy See, currently located in Vatican City. It is one of the oldest libraries in the world and contains one of the most significant collections of historical texts. Formally established in 1475, though in fact much older, it has 75,000 codices from throughout history.

Scholars have traditionally divided the history of the library into five periods:

• Pre-Lateran. The initial days of the library, dating from the earliest days of the church, before it moved to the Lateran Palace.
• Lateran. Lasted until the end of the 13th century and the reign of Pope Boniface VIII.
• Avignon. This period saw a great growth in book collection and record keeping by the popes who were in residence in southern France in Avignon between the death of Boniface and the 1370s when the Papacy returned to Rome.
• Pre-Vatican. From about 1370 to 1446, the library was scattered, with parts in Rome, Avignon and elsewhere.
• Vatican. Starting around 1448, the library moved to the Vatican and a continuous history begins to the present time.

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Selected article 3

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/3 The Institute for Works of Religion (Italian: Istituto per le Opere di Religione – IOR), commonly known as the Vatican Bank, is a privately held institute located inside Vatican City run by a professional bank CEO who reports directly to a committee of cardinals, and ultimately to the Pope (or the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church during a sede vacante). Since its assets are not considered property of the Holy See, it is not overseen by the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and it is listed in the Annuario Pontificio together with foundations such as the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, which provides funds for training people to fight drought and desertification in nine African countries. The current President is Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

The Institute was involved in a major political and financial scandal in the 1980s, concerning the 1982 $3.5 billion collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, of which it was a major shareholder. The head of IOR from 1971 to 1989, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, was under consideration for indictment in 1982 in Italy as an accessory of the bankruptcy; however, he was never brought to trial due to the Italian courts' ruling that the priest, being a high-ranking prelate of the Vatican, had diplomatic immunity from prosecution.

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Selected article 4

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Swiss Guards or Schweizergarde are the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. Apart from household and guard units, regular Swiss mercenary regiments have served as line troops in various armies; notably those of France, Spain and Naples up to the 19th century. In contemporary usage, the name Swiss Guards generally refers to the Pontifical Swiss Guard of Vatican City.

Various units of Swiss Guards existed for hundreds of years. The earliest such unit was the Swiss Hundred Guard (Cent Suisses) at the French court (1497 – 1830). This small force was complemented in 1567 by a Swiss Guards regiment. The Papal Swiss Guard, (now located in the Vatican City State), was founded in 1506 and is the only Swiss Guard that still exists. In the 18th and early 19th centuries several other Swiss Guards existed for periods in various European courts.

The use of Swiss soldiers as Royal guards and as the Pontifical guard stems from the reputation of Swiss mercenaries at the time of their formation. Since Switzerland was a poor country, young men often sought their fortunes abroad. Having a reputation for discipline and loyalty, and employing revolutionary battle tactics, they were considered the most powerful troops of the 15th century, until their methods were refined by the Landsknechte in the early 16th century.

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Selected article 5

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The Vatican Gardens (Italian: Giardini Vaticani) in Vatican City are urban gardens and parks which cover more than half of the Vatican territory in the South and Northeast. There are some buildings such as Radio Vatican within the gardens.

The gardens cover approximately 23 hectares (57 acres) which is most of the Vatican Hill. The highest point is 60 metres (200 ft) above mean sea level. Stone walls bound the area in the North, South and West.

The gardens and parks were established during the Renaissance and Baroque era and are decorated with fountains and sculptures. There are several springs under the earth which as of 2009 are not in use. There is a wide variety of flora, and the area is considered a biotope.

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Selected article 6

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The transportation system in Vatican City, a country 1.05 km long and 0.85 km wide, is a small transportation system with no airports or highways. Given an average walking speed of 3.6 km/h, Vatican City can be crossed in 20 minutes or less. Thus, much of the infrastructure in the Vatican consists of St. Peter's Square itself, hallways and aisles in the basilica and surrounding buildings, and walkways behind and between the buildings. There is a heliport in the western corner of the city-state that is used for officials of the Holy See and official visitors.

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Selected article 7

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/7 Vatican Radio (Italian: ''Radio Vaticana'') is the official broadcasting service of the Vatican.

Set up in 1931 by Guglielmo Marconi, today its programs are offered in 47 languages, and are sent out on short wave (also DRM), medium wave, FM, satellite and the Internet. The Jesuit Order has been charged with the management of Vatican Radio since its inception. During World War II and the rise of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Vatican Radio served as a source for news for the Allies as well as broadcasting pro-Allied (or simply neutral) propaganda. A week after Pope Pius XII ordered the programming, Vatican Radio broadcast to an unbelieving world that Poles and Jews were being rounded up and forced into ghettos.

Today, programming is produced by over two hundred journalists located in 61 different countries. Vatican Radio produces more than 42,000 hours of simultaneous broadcasting covering international news, religious celebrations, in-depth programs, and music. The current general director is Father Federico Lombardi, S.J.

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Selected article 8

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/8 The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Latin Pontificia Academia Scientiarum) is a scientific academy of the Vatican, founded in 1603 and later re-established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI. It is placed under the protection of the reigning Supreme Pontiff. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences and the study of related epistemological problems. The Academy has its origins in the Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), founded in 1847 intended as a more closely supervised successor to the Accademia dei Lincei ("Academy of Lynxes") established in Rome in 1603, by the learned Roman Prince, Federico Cesi (1585–1630) who was a young botanist and naturalist, and which claimed Galileo Galilei as its president.The Accademia dei Lincei survives as a wholly separate institution.

The Academy is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in the heart of the Vatican Gardens. The academy holds a membership roster of the most respected names in 20th century science, including such Nobel laureates as Ernest Rutherford, Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Otto Hahn, Charles Hard Townes and Stephen Hawking.

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Selected article 9

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The legal code regarding homosexuality in the Vatican City is based on the Italian penal code of 1929, the time of the founding of the sovereign state Vatican City. However, it was announced in late 2008 that the Vatican "will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own, a top Vatican official said, citing the vast number of laws Italy churns out, many of which are in odds with Catholic doctrine".

There are no criminal laws against non-commercial, private, adult and consensual same-sex sexual activity.

The Vatican does not have its own separate criminal code...

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Selected article 10

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The flag of Vatican City was adopted on June 7, 1929, the year Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy, creating a new independent state governed by the Holy See. The Vatican flag is modeled on the flag of the earlier Papal States.

The flag consists of two vertical bands, one of gold (hoist side) and one of white with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the Papal Tiara centered in the white band. The crossed keys consist of a golden and a silver key, in which the silver key is placed in the dexter position. The flag is one of only two square country flags in the world, the other being the flag of Switzerland. The yellow and white stripes break the heraldic rule of tincture.

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Selected article 11

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/11 The Politics of Vatican City takes place in a framework of an absolute theocratic elective monarchy, in which the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of the Vatican City (an entity distinct from the Holy See), a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.

The pope is elected in the Conclave, composed of all the cardinal electors (now limited to all the cardinals below the age of 80), after the death or resignation of the previous Pope. The Conclave is held in the Sistine Chapel, where all the electors are locked in (Latin cum clave) until the election for which a two-thirds majority is required. The faithful can follow the results of the polls (usually two in the morning and two in the evening, until election) by a chimney-top, visible from St. Peter's Square: in a stove attached to the chimney are burnt the voting papers, and additives make the resulting smoke black (fumata nera) in case of no election, white (fumata bianca) when the new pope is finally elected. The Dean of the Sacred College (Cardinale Decano) will then ask the freshly elected pope to choose his pastoral name, and as soon as the pope is dressed with the white habit, the Senior Cardinal-Deacon (Cardinale Protodiacono) appears on the major balcony of St. Peter's façade to introduce the new pope with the famous Latin sentence Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam.(I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope).

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Selected article 12

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/12

The Papal State(s), the State(s) of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States (Italian: Stato Pontificio, also Stato della Chiesa, Stati della Chiesa, Stati Pontifici, and Stato Ecclesiastico; Latin: Status Pontificius, also Dicio Pontificia) were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia (after which the Papal States, in less territorially extensive form, continued to exist until 1870).

The Papal States comprised territories under direct sovereign rule of the papacy, and at its height it covered most of the modern Italian regions of Romagna, Marche, Umbria and Lazio. This governing power is commonly called the temporal power of the Pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy.

The plural Papal States is usually preferred; the singular Papal State (equally correct since it was not a mere personal union) tends to be used (normally with lower-case letters) for the modern State of Vatican City, an enclave within Italy's national capital, Rome. The Vatican City was founded in 1929, again allowing the Holy See the political benefits of territorial sovereignty.

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Selected article 13

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/13 The Politics of Vatican City takes place in a framework of an absolute theocratic elective monarchy, in which the head of the Catholic Church, the Pope, exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of the Vatican City (an entity distinct from the Holy See), a rare case of non-hereditary monarchy.

The pope is elected in the Conclave, composed of all the cardinal electors (now limited to all the cardinals below the age of 80), after the death or resignation of the previous Pope. The Conclave is held in the Sistine Chapel, where all the electors are locked in (Latin cum clave) until the election for which a two-thirds majority is required. The faithful can follow the results of the polls (usually two in the morning and two in the evening, until election) by a chimney-top, visible from St. Peter's Square: in a stove attached to the chimney are burnt the voting papers, and additives make the resulting smoke black (fumata nera) in case of no election, white (fumata bianca) when the new pope is finally elected. The Dean of the Sacred College (Cardinale Decano) will then ask the freshly elected pope to choose his pastoral name, and as soon as the pope is dressed with the white habit, the Senior Cardinal-Deacon (Cardinale Protodiacono) appears on the major balcony of St. Peter's façade to introduce the new pope with the famous Latin sentence Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam.(I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope).

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Selected article 14

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/14 The Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes) is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome. The primacy of Rome makes its bishop the worldwide leader of the Catholic Church, commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic Church. It is also recognized by other subjects of international law as a sovereign entity, headed by the Pope, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained."

Although it is often referred to as "the Vatican", the Holy See is not the same entity as the Vatican City State, which came into existence only in 1929; the Holy See, the episcopal see of Rome, dates back to early Christian times. Ambassadors are officially accredited not to the Vatican City State but to "the Holy See", and papal representatives to states and international organizations are recognized as representing the Holy See, not the Vatican City State.

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Selected article 15

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/15 The Fundamental Law of Vatican City State, promulgated by Pope John Paul II on 26 November 2000, is the Supreme Law of the Vatican. It obtained the Force of Law of 22 February 2001, Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, Apostle, and replaced in its entirety law N. I (the Fundamental Law of Vatican City of 7 June 1929). All the norms in force in Vatican City State which were not in agreement with the new Law were abrogated and the original of the Fundamental Law, bearing the Seal of Vatican City State, was deposited in the Archive of the Laws of Vatican City State and the corresponding text was published in the Supplement to the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. The law consists of 20 Articles.

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Selected article 16

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/16 The Pontifical Anthem or Papal Anthem is the official anthem of the Pope, which serves also as the anthem of the Holy See and the Vatican City State. It is played at solemn occasions of the State and ceremonies in which the Pope or one of his representatives, such as a nuncio, is present. When the Vatican's flag is ceremonially raised, only the first eight bars are played.

The music was composed in 1869 by Charles Gounod, for the celebration on April 11, 1869 of Pope Pius IX's silver jubilee of priestly ordination. The purely instrumental piece in three parts, originally called Marche pontificale (French for "Pontifical March"), became extremely popular from its first performance.

While the Papal Anthem serves as the official anthem for the Vatican State, the Vatican stresses that it "is not to be understood as a national anthem"; it is a composition whose words and music "speak to the heart of many throughout the world who see in Rome the See of Peter."

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Selected article 17

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/17 The coat of arms of the State of Vatican City is blazoned gules, two keys in saltire Or and argent, interlaced in the rings gules/Or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned Or. Thus it is simply the emblem of the Papacy (emblem of the Holy See) displayed on a red field with the positions of the gold and silver keys reversed.

• The crossed keys of gold and silver symbolise the keys of the kingdom of heaven promised to Saint Peter, with authority to bind and loose (Matthew 16:18-19).
• The triple crown (the tiara) represents "the three powers of the Supreme Pontiff: Sacred Orders, Jurisdiction and Magisterium", in other words: his functions as "supreme priest", "supreme pastor" and "supreme teacher".
• The gold cross surmounting the triple crowns symbolizes the crucifixion of Jesus.

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Selected article 18

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/18

The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, which is located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Sacred Palace, the Papal Palace and the Palace of the Vatican. The Vatican itself refers to the building as the Palace of Sixtus V in honor of Pope Sixtus V.

The palace is more accurately a series of self-contained buildings within the well-recognised outer structure which is arranged around the Courtyard of Sixtus V (Cortile di Sisto V). It is located North-East of St Peters Basilica and adjacent to the Bastion of Nicholas V and Palace of Gregory XIII.

Rather than a traditional palace (a residential building surrounded by support buildings) the Apostolic Palace houses both residential apartments and support offices of various functions as well as administrative offices not focused on the life and functions of the Pope himself.

The building contains the Papal Apartments, various government offices of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See, private and public chapels, Vatican Museums and the Vatican library, including the Borgia Apartment now used to house artworks.

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Selected article 19

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/19 The Vatican City national football team (Italian: Selezione di calcio della Città del Vaticano) is the football team that represents Vatican City. They are one of only seven fully recognised sovereign states whose national team is not a FIFA member. The others are Monaco, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau. The football association of Vatican City was founded in 1972. The current president of the FA is Sergio Valci. The team has been managed by Giovanni Trapattoni in the past.

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II established a Vatican sports department to "reinvigorating the tradition (of sport) within the Christian community". In the past Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone suggested that the Vatican could field a team of men from catholic seminaries. About the prospect, the cardinal stated, "If we just take the Brazilian students from our Pontifical universities we could have a magnificent squad." The cardinal also noted that in the 1990 FIFA World Cup, there were 42 players in the final round who attended Salesian training centers worldwide.

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Selected article 20

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The Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City State (Italian: Ufficio Filatelico e Numismatico) is responsible for issuing Vatican postal stamps and Vatican coins.

While Vatican stamps may only be used within the city of Rome, and the quantity of euro coins is limited by treaty with Italy (The total value of all coins minted in 2002 was restricted to €310,400), Vatican coins and stamps serve as an important sign of Vatican sovereignty, and their scarcity and design makes them popular with collectors.

Indeed, public interest in Vatican currency and stamps was considered sufficient to justify a Philatelic and Numismatic Museum (Il Museo Filatelico e Numismatico) which has been opened as part of the Vatican Museums in 2007. Two special stamps about the museum were issued at the museum opening.

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Selected article 21

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The state of Vatican City has established no official language by law. However, in accordance with paragraph 2 of the Legge sulle fonti del diritto of 7 June 1929, it promulgates its laws and regulations by publishing them in the Italian-language Supplemento per le leggi e disposizioni dello Stato della Città del Vaticano attached to the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

On its official website Vatican City uses Italian, English, French, German, and Spanish, but not Latin or Portuguese, which are found on the official website of the Holy See.

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Selected article 22

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/22 .va is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the State of the Vatican City. It is administered by the Internet Office of the Holy See.

There are 23 easily found names starting with "www" in the va zone, listed below. There are many more subdomains for email only

Second-level domains are not available to the public.

Name and email servers within the .va namespace include john.vatican.va (DNS and email), michael.vatican.va (DNS), paul.vatican.va (email), lists.vatican.va (email), and vatiradio.va (email).

Strangely enough, some offsite secondary DNS servers used by the Vatican are named after Egyptian gods, like:

• seth.namex.it.
• osiris.namex.it.

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Selected article 23

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/23

The Lateran Palace (Italian: Palazzo Laterano), formally the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran (Italian: Palazzo Apostolico Lateranense), is an ancient palace of the Roman Empire and later the main Papal residence.

Adjacent to the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, the cathedral church of Rome, the Lateran Palace is now occupied by the Museo Storico Vaticano which illustrates the history of the Papal States. The Lateran Palaces also houses the offices of the Vicariate of Rome, as well as the residential apartments of the Cardinal Vicar, the Pope's delegate for the daily administration of the Diocese of Rome. Until 1970, the palace was also home to the important collections of the Lateran Museum, now dispersed among other parts of the Vatican Museums.

From the fourth century, the Palace of the Lateran on Piazza San Giovanni in southeast Rome was the principal residence of the Popes, and continued so for about a thousand years.

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Selected article 24

Portal:Vatican City/Selected article/24 The Lateran Treaty is one of the Lateran Pacts of 1929 or Lateran Accords, agreements made in 1929 between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See, and ratified June 7, 1929, ending the "Roman Question". Italy was then under a Fascist government; the succeeding Italian governments have all upheld the treaty.

The pacts consisted of two documents, with four annexes:

• A political treaty recognising the full sovereignty of the Holy See in the State of Vatican City, which was thereby established, a document accompanied by the annexes:
  • A plan of the territory of the Vatican City State
  • A list and plans of the buildings with extraterritorial privilege and exemption from expropriation and taxes
  • A list and plans of the buildings with exemption from expropriation and taxes
  • A financial convention agreed on as a definitive settlement of the claims of the Holy See following the loss of its territories and property
• A concordat regulating relations between the Catholic Church and the Italian state

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Selected article 25

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The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope, aka the VATT, is a 1.8 meter Gregorian telescope observing in the optical and infrared. It is part of the Mount Graham International Observatory. It is situated on Mount Graham in southeast Arizona, and it achieved 'first light', the first starlight to pass through the telescope onto a detector, in 1993. It is operated by the Vatican Observatory, one of the oldest astronomical research institutions in the world, in partnership with The University of Arizona.

The heart of the telescope is an f/1.0 honeycombed construction, borosilicate primary mirror. The mirror was manufactured at The University of Arizona's Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory[1], which pioneered both the spin-casting and the stressed-lap polishing techniques which are being used for telescope mirrors that include the 6.5 meter aperture MMT and Magellan telescopes and the two 8.4 meter mirrors of the Large Binocular Telescope. The VATT's mirror is unusually 'fast', f/1, which means that its focal distance is equal to its diameter. Because it has such a short focal length, a Gregorian design could be employed which uses a concave secondary mirror at a point beyond the primary focus; this allows unusually sharp focusing across the field of view.

The unusual optical design and novel mirror fabrication techniques mean that both the primary and secondary mirrors are among the most exact surfaces ever made for a ground-based telescope. In addition, the skies above Mount Graham are among the most clear, steady, and dark in the continental North America. Seeing of better than one arc-second even without adaptive optics can be achieved on a regular basis.