Joan impersonated a man so that she could enter the clerical life and rise through the ecclesiastical ranks of the hierarchy, which she allegedly did with ease. Supposedly, her short hair and manly dress fooled everyone until one day, while riding a horse, she gave birth to a child and was exposed as a fake — only to be stoned to death by the angry mob. And if you believe that, we’ll tell you another one… .
Where the pope hangs his hat
The pope’s home is Vatican City, an independent nation since the Lateran Agreement of 1929, when Italy recognized its sovereignty. Vatican City covers only 0.2 square mile (108.7 acres), has fewer than a thousand inhabitants, and rests in the middle of Rome.
The donation of large estates stopped around A.d. 600, but 154 years later, King Pepin (the Short) of the Franks (who was also the father of Charlemagne) issued the Donation of A.d. 754: The pope would govern the territory of central Italy (16,000 square miles). From 754 to 1870, Vatican City was part of the Papal States, also known as Patrimonium Sancti Petri (the Patrimony of St. Peter). During the unification of Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi and Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the two men most responsible for creating the Kingdom and modern nation of Italy in 1870, seized the Papal States and, for all practical purposes, ended the secular rule of the popes. Today, Vatican City is the smallest independent nation in the world. Ironically, it also has the largest number of embassies and ambassadors around the globe. Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of radio, built a radio for Pope Pius XI; thus Vatican Radio began in 1931. Now, besides a radio and short-wave antennae, the Vatican has television, Internet programming, and a Facebook page. Pope Francis even uses his own Twitter account.
The only real citizens of Vatican City, aside from the pope, are the cardinals who live in Rome, directors of other Vatican offices, and full-time diplomats who work for the Holy See (the pope and the various offices of Church government in the Vatican). These diplomats, clergy and laity alike, come from countries all over the world. They still retain their own nationality and citizenship but are given a Vatican passport while employed to represent the Vatican. Originally sent to Rome in 1506, about 107 Swiss guards protect the pope, decorating the Piazza (outdoor square where people gather) with their colorful costumes. In addition, plain-clothes Swiss guards, with electronic surveillance and sophisticated weapons, also keep a close eye on the Holy Father, especially since the attempted assassination of St. John Paul II in 1981.
Since 1447 popes had lived in the Apostolic Palace, which is nothing more than rooms at the Vatican where the Holy Father lives, eats, and does business. Pope Francis chose to move (actually stay) in the hotel used by the cardinals during the 2013 conclave that elected him pope. The Domus Sanctae Marthae was built in 1996 by St. John Paul II to accommodate the needs of the electors as the Sistine Chapel had become too antiquated for living quarters.
Who’s Next in the Ecclesiastical Scheme of Things
Because the Catholic Church has a billion-plus members, the pope depends on many helpers to govern the vast institution. The ranking system goes like this: The pope’s at the helm, followed by cardinals, archbishops/bishops, vicars general, monsignors, and priests. The rest of the Church is made up of deacons, monks, nuns, brothers, sisters, and laypersons. (The latter — lay men and lay women — make up 99.9 percent of the Church.)
Cardinals
Although the primary responsibility of the College of Cardinals is to elect a pope (see the earlier section “How the pope gets his job”), cardinals have many other responsibilities as well. The Roman Curia is the whole group of administrators (Cardinal Prefects) who head up their departments (congregations, tribunals, and so on), working together as the right hand of the pope. The pope governs through the Roman Curia, something like cabinet members who assist the president or department ministers who assist the prime minister. For example, a Cardinal Secretary of State represents the Holy See to foreign governments, because Vatican City is the world’s smallest independent country. And you can find a different cardinal heading up each congregation, such as the Congregation for
Doctrine of the Faith
Bishops
Catholic Education
Causes of the Saints
Clergy
Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments
Evangelization of Peoples
Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Oriental Churches
A different cardinal also heads up each of several commissions and councils, as well as three high courts of the Catholic Church: the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Apostolic Signatura, and the Roman Rota, all of which deal with canon law (see Chapter 11) and its application and interpretation.
Cardinals who don’t work in the Curia run an archdiocese, mostly functioning as an archbishop would — ordaining, confirming, and doing the day-to-day business of being chief shepherd of the archdiocese. These cardinals are also often the metropolitans, which means that they supervise the province of two to several dioceses, usually all in the same state or region. (We define archdiocese and diocese in the next section.) A metropolitan doesn’t have immediate authority over neighboring bishops or their dioceses even though they’re within the cardinal archbishop’s province as metropolitan.
A metropolitan does report to Rome, however, if one of the bishops in his province is derelict in his duties, commits scandal or crime, and so on. Often, the apostolic nuncio, the papal ambassador to that country, consults with the cardinal when vacancies appear in his province, as in the case of a bishop dying or retiring. For example, the Cardinal Archbishop of Philadelphia is the Metropolitan for Pennsylvania, which incorporates the eight dioceses of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Erie, Harrisburg, Scranton, Allentown, Greensburg, and Altoona-Johnstown.
The pope personally selects the men who become cardinals. The ceremony where new cardinals are created is called a consistory, and it usually occurs every few years to replace those who have retired (or will soon retire), as well as those who have died since the last consistory. This way, the goal of 120 cardinal electors is more likely achieved should the pope die, in which case a conclave is called to elect a new pope. Since the pontificate of St. John Paul II, a concerted effort has been made to have a diverse spectrum of cardinals from all continents and from both Latin and Eastern Catholic Rites.
Bishops and archbishops
Besides being the head of the Catholic Church, the pope is also the bishop of Rome. The pope isn’t more a bishop than any other bishop, but his
