The Vatican is the name for both Vatican City, the world’s smallest independent state, and the Holy See, the center of Roman Catholic Church leadership. Vatican City is located within Rome, Italy, and serves as the headquarters of the Pope and the Roman Curia. 

Here’s a more detailed look:

Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (Italian: Stato della Città del Vaticano Latin: Status Civitatis Vaticanae), is a landlocked country, city-state, microstate, and enclave surrounded by, and historically a part of, Rome in Italy. It became independent from Italy in 1929 with the Lateran Treaty, and is a distinct territory under “full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction” of the Holy See, which is itself a sovereign entity under international law, maintaining the city-state’s temporal power, governance, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. The Vatican is also a metonym for the pope, the Holy See, and the Roman Curia.

With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 882 in 2024, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world both by area and by population. It is among the least populated capitals in the world. As governed by the Holy See, Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal–monarchical state ruled by the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1377) the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.

The Holy See dates back to early Christianity and is the principal episcopal see of the Catholic Church, which had approximately 1.329 billion baptised Catholics in the world in 2018, in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent state of Vatican City came into existence in 1929 via the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of Central Italy.

Vatican City contains religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Apostolic Library, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world’s most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from Catholic believers, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications. Vatican City has no taxes, and items are duty-free.

Name

The name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, which established the modern city-state named after Vatican Hill, the geographic location of the state within the city of Rome. “Vatican” itself is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum, located in the general area the Romans called Ager Vaticanus, “Vatican territory”.

The Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, meaning ‘State of Vatican City’. Its Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanae; this is used in official documents by the Holy See, the Church and the Pope.

History

Early history

The name “Vatican” was already in use in the time of the Roman Republic for the Ager Vaticanus, a marshy area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome, located between the Janiculum, the Vatican Hill and Monte Mario, down to the Aventine Hill and up to the confluence of the Cremera creek. The toponym Ager Vaticanus is attested until the 1st century AD: afterwards, another toponym appeared, Vaticanus, denoting an area much more restricted: the Vatican Hill, today’s St. Peter’s Square, and possibly today’s Via della Conciliazione. Because of its vicinity to Rome’s archenemy, the Etruscan city of Veii (another naming for the Ager Vaticanus was Ripa Veientana or Ripa Etrusca), and for being subjected to the floods of the Tiber, the Romans considered this originally uninhabited part of Rome dismal and ominous.

The particularly low quality of Vatican wine, even after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial (AD 40 – c. AD 102). Tacitus wrote that in AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, when the northern army that brought 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”.

During the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder (14 BC – 18 October AD 33) drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD 40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers in AD 40, that was later completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis, usually called, simply, the Circus of Nero.

The Vatican obelisk in St. Peter’s Square is the last visible remnant from the Circus of Nero. It was brought from Heliopolis in Egypt by Emperor Caligula. The obelisk originally stood at the centre of the spina (median) of the Roman circus. The circus became the site of martyrdom for many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Tradition states that it was in this circus that Saint Peter was crucified upside-down. In 1586, the obelisk was relocated to its current position by Pope Sixtus V, using a method devised by Italian architect Domenico Fontana.

Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Funeral monuments, mausoleums, small tombs, and altars to pagan gods of all kinds of polytheistic religions, were constructed before the construction of the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter in the first half of the 4th century. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the ancient Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby. Remains of this ancient necropolis were brought discovered during renovations by 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. The Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery.

From then on, the land mass became more populated in connection with activity at the basilica. A palace was constructed nearby as early as the 5th century during the pontificate of Pope Symmachus (reigned 498–514).

Papal States

Popes gradually came to have a secular role as governors of regions near Rome. They ruled the Papal States, which covered a large portion of the Italian peninsula, for more than a thousand years until the mid-19th century, when all the territory belonging to the papacy was seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy.

For most of this time, the popes did not live at the Vatican. The Lateran Palace, on the opposite side of Rome, was their habitual residence for about a thousand years. From 1309 to 1377, they lived in Avignon in France. On their return to Rome, they chose to live at the Vatican. They moved to the Quirinal Palace in 1583, after work on it was completed under Pope Paul V (1605–1621). In 1870, after the capture of Rome, popes have lived in the Vatican. Their prior residence at the Quirinal Palace was taken over by the King of Italy.

Under Italian rule (1871–1929)

In 1870, the pope’s holdings were left in an uncertain situation when Rome was annexed by Italian forces, bringing to completion the Italian unification, after a nominal resistance by the papal forces. Between 1861 and 1929, the status of the Pope of Rome was referred to as the “Roman Question”.

Italy made no attempt to interfere with the Holy See within the Vatican walls. However, it confiscated church property in many places. In 1871, the Quirinal Palace was confiscated by the King of Italy and became the royal palace. Thereafter, the popes resided undisturbed within the Vatican walls, and certain papal prerogatives were recognised by the Law of Guarantees, including the right to send and receive ambassadors. The popes did not recognise the Italian king’s right to rule in Rome, and they refused to leave the Vatican compound until the dispute was resolved in 1929. Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), the last ruler of the Papal States, was referred to as a “prisoner in the Vatican“. Forced to give up secular power, the popes focused on spiritual issues.

Lateran treaties

This situation was resolved on 11 February 1929, when the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and the Kingdom of Italy was signed by Prime Minister and Head of Government Benito Mussolini on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III and by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Gasparri for Pope Pius XI. The treaty, which was ratified and took effect on 7 June 1929, established the independent state of Vatican City and reaffirmed the special status of Catholic Christianity in Italy.

World War II

The Holy See, which governed the Vatican City, pursued a policy of neutrality during World War II under the leadership of Pope Pius XII. German troops occupied Rome after the September 1943 Armistice of Cassibile, with Allied forces pushing them out in 1944. Both sides respected the Vatican City’s status as neutral territory.

One of the main diplomatic priorities of Pius XII was to prevent the bombing of Rome. A high level of sensitivity led him to protest even the dropping of pamphlets over Rome by the Royal Air Force, claiming that the few which landed within the Vatican City violated its neutrality. The British government’s policy towards the Vatican, as expressed in the minutes of a Cabinet meeting, was “that we should on no account molest the Vatican City, but that our action as regards the rest of Rome would depend upon how far the Italian government observed the rules of war”.

After the United States entered into the war, US officials were against bombing the Vatican City, fearful of offending Catholic members of the American military, but said that “they could not stop the British from bombing Rome if the British so decided”. The US military even exempted Catholic servicemembers from air raids on Rome and other areas with a significant Catholic presence, unless they voluntarily agreed to participate. Notably, with the exception of Rome, and presumably the possibility of the Vatican, no Catholic US servicemember refused a mission within German-held Italy. On the other hand, the British insisted “they would bomb Rome whenever the needs of the war demanded”

In December 1942, the British envoy to the Holy See suggested that Rome be declared an open city, a suggestion that the Holy See took more seriously than was probably meant by the envoy, who did not want Rome to be an open city. Mussolini rejected the suggestion when the Holy See put it to him. In connection with the Allied invasion of Sicily, 500 United States Army Air Forces aircraft bombed Rome on 19 July 1943, targeting Rome’s railway hub in particular. Approximately 1,500 people were killed, and Pius XII, who had been described in the previous month as “worried sick” about the possibility of Rome being bombed, toured the affected areas. Another Allied bombing raid took place on 13 August 1943, after Mussolini had been ousted from power. The following day, the new Italian government declared Rome an open city, after consulting the Holy See on the wording of the declaration.

Post-war history

Pius XII refrained from creating cardinals during the war. By the end of World War II, there were several prominent vacancies: Cardinal Secretary of State, Camerlengo, Chancellor, and Prefect for the Congregation for the Religious among them. Pius XII created 32 cardinals in early 1946, having announced his intention to do so in his preceding Christmas message.

In 1970, the Pontifical Military Corps, except for the Swiss Guard, was disbanded by Paul VI. The Gendarmerie Corps was transformed into a civilian police and security force.

In 1984, a new concordat between the Holy See and Italy modified provisions of the earlier treaty, including the position of Catholic Christianity as the Italian state religion, a position given to it by a statute of the Kingdom of Sardinia of 1848.

In 1995, construction of a new guest house, Domus Sanctae Marthae, adjacent to St Peter’s Basilica was criticized by Italian environmental groups, backed by Italian politicians. They claimed the new building would block views of the Basilica from nearby Italian apartments. For a short while the plans strained the relations between the Vatican and the Italian government. The head of the Vatican’s Department of Technical Services robustly rejected challenges to the Vatican State’s right to build within its borders.

In 2015, John R. Morss wrote in the European Journal of International Law that due to the terms of the Lateran Treaty, Vatican City’s status as a sovereign state, and the Pope‘s status as a head of state, are problematic.

Geography

The territory of Vatican City is part of the Vatican Hill, and of the adjacent former Vatican Fields. It is in this territory that St. Peter’s Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, the Sistine Chapel, and museums were built, along with other buildings. The area was part of the Roman rione of Borgo until 1929. Being separated from Rome, on the west bank of the river Tiber, the area was an outcrop of Rome that was protected by being included within the walls of Leo IV (847–855), and later expanded by the current fortification walls, built under Paul III (1534–1549), Pius IV (1559–1565), and Urban VIII (1623–1644).

When the Lateran Treaty of 1929 that gave the state its form was being prepared, the boundaries of the proposed territory were influenced by the fact that much of it was all but enclosed by this loop. For some tracts of the frontier, there was no wall, but the line of certain buildings supplied part of the boundary, and for a small part of the frontier a modern wall was constructed.

The territory includes St. Peter’s Square, distinguished from the territory of Italy only by a white line along the limit of the square, where it touches Piazza Pio XII. St. Peter’s Square is reached through the Via della Conciliazione which runs from close to the Tiber to St. Peter’s. This grand approach was constructed by Benito Mussolini after the conclusion of the Lateran Treaty.

According to the Lateran Treaty, certain properties of the Holy See that are located in Italian territory, most notably the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo and the major basilicas, enjoy extraterritorial status similar to that of foreign embassies. These properties, scattered all over Rome and Italy, house essential offices and institutions necessary to the character and mission of the Holy See.

Castel Gandolfo and the named basilicas are patrolled internally by police agents of Vatican City State and not by Italian police. According to the Lateran Treaty, St. Peter’s Square, up to but not including the steps leading to the basilica, is normally patrolled by the Italian police.

There are no passport controls for visitors entering Vatican City from the surrounding Italian territory. There is free public access to Saint Peter’s Square and Basilica and, on the occasion of papal general audiences, to the hall in which they are held. For these audiences and for major ceremonies in Saint Peter’s Basilica and Square, tickets free of charge must be obtained beforehand. The Vatican Museums, incorporating the Sistine Chapel, usually charge an entrance fee. There is no general public access to the gardens. Guided tours for small groups can be arranged to the gardens and excavations under the basilica. Other Vatican locations are only open to individuals who have business to transact there.

Climate

Vatican City’s climate is the same as Rome’s: a temperate, Mediterranean climate Csa. It has mild, rainy winters from October to mid-May, and hot, dry summers from May to September. Some minor local features, principally mists and dews, are caused by the anomalous bulk of St Peter’s Basilica, the elevation, the fountains, and the size of the large paved square. The highest temperature ever recorded was 40.8 °C (105.4 °F) on 28 June 2022.

In July 2007, the Vatican accepted a proposal by two firms based respectively in San Francisco and Budapest, to become the first carbon neutral state by offsetting its carbon dioxide emissions with the creation of a Vatican Climate Forest in Hungary, as a purely symbolic gesture to encourage Catholics to do more to safeguard the planet. Nothing came of the project.

In November 2008, the Vatican installed solar panels on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall.

Gardens

Within the territory of the Vatican City are the Vatican Gardens (Italian: Giardini Vaticani), which account for about half of the Vatican territory. The gardens, established during the Renaissance and Baroque era, are decorated with fountains and sculptures.

The gardens cover approximately 23 hectares (57 acres). The highest point is 60 metres (197 ft) above mean sea level. Stone walls bound the area in the north, south, and west.

The gardens date back to medieval times when orchards and vineyards extended to the north of the Papal Apostolic Palace. In 1279, Pope Nicholas III (Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, 1277–1280) moved his residence back to the Vatican from the Lateran Palace and enclosed this area with walls. He planted an orchard (pomerium), a lawn (pratellum), and a garden (viridarium).

Governance

The politics of Vatican City takes place in the context of an absolute elective monarchy and being governed by the Holy See, in which the head of the Catholic Church holds power. The Pope exercises principal legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of Vatican City, which is a rare case of a non-hereditary monarchy.

State and Holy See

The Vatican City State, 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).

Vatican City is one of the few widely recognised independent states that has not become a member of the United Nations. 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.

Structure

The government of Vatican City has a unique structure. As governed by the Holy See, the Pope is the sovereign of the state, but he is supported by different bodies. Legislative authority is managed, in the pope’s name, by the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, a body of cardinals appointed by the pope for five-year periods. Executive power is exercised by the president of that commission, who is consequently also the president of the governorate, assisted by the general secretary and the 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 absolute power in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches over Vatican City, and is thus the only absolute monarch in Europe.

Operationally, there are departments that deal with health, security, telecommunications and other matters.

Sede vacante

The Cardinal Camerlengo presides over the Apostolic Camera, to which is entrusted the administration of the property and protection of other papal temporal powers and rights of the Holy See during the period of the empty throne or sede vacante (papal vacancy). Those of the Vatican State remain under the control of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. 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 of Vatican City. All the decisions these four cardinals take must be approved by the College of Cardinals as a whole.

Papal nobility

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. With the motu proprio Pontificalis Domus of 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.

Head of state

As Vatican City is governed by the Holy See, the Pope is ex officio head of state of Vatican City, a function dependent on his primordial function as bishop of the diocese of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The term “Holy See” refers not to the Vatican state but to the pope’s spiritual and pastoral governance, largely exercised through the Roman Curia. His official title with regard to Vatican City is Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City.

Pope Francis, born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected on 13 March 2013. His principal subordinate government official for Vatican City as well as the country’s de facto head of government is the President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, who since 1952 exercises the functions previously belonging to the Governor of Vatican City. Since 2001, the president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State also has the title of president of the Governorate of the State of Vatican City. The president is Spanish cardinal Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, who was appointed on 1 October 2021.

The death of Pope Francis in April 2025 vacated the head of state position, and a papal conclave will be held in May 2025 to elect a new Pope.

Government and justice

Legislative functions are administered by the Pope of Rome but also delegated to the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, led by the President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State. Its members are cardinals appointed by the Pope for terms of five years. Acts of the commission must be approved by the Pope, through the Holy See’s Secretariat of State,^{[citation needed]} and must be published in a special appendix of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. Most of the content of this appendix consists of routine executive decrees, such as approval for a new set of postage stamps.

Executive authority is delegated to the president of the Governorate of Vatican City, who is also the president of the Pontificial Commission. In addition, the Governorate include two immediate collaborators of the president: the general secretary and the deputy general secretary, members of the General Secretariat, each appointed by the pope for five-year terms. Important actions of the Governorate must be confirmed by the Pontifical Commission and by the Pope through the Secretariat of State.

Both the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and the president of the Governorate of Vatican City can be assisted by the Councilors of Vatican City State in drafting legislation and other important issues. The president of the Governorate can convoke the members of the Council of Directors, together with external experts and people. The Governorate oversees the central governmental functions through several departments and offices. The directors and officials of these offices are appointed by the Pope for five-year terms.

The Governorate is organized into central offices, one for law and another for personnel matters, and directorates with roles in the following matters:

• Infrastructures and services
• Telecommunications and computer services
• Security services and civil protection
• Health and hygiene
• Museums and cultural heritage
• Pontifical Villas

There are subsidiary bodies for monetary, disciplinary, personnel and personnel selection matters.

In the Pope’s name, judiciary functions (Vatican judiciary) are exercised by four bodies: a Supreme Court, a Court of Appeal, a Tribunal and a Sole Judge, whose roles are established by the Vatican codes of criminal and civil procedure, and the 2013 “Motu Proprio On the Jurisdiction of Judicial Authorities of Vatican City State in Criminal Matters”. At the Vatican’s request, sentences imposed can be served in Italy (see the section on crime, below).

Due to obvious territorial constraints, many headquarters and offices of the Holy See are located on Italian territory. They are granted the same immunity as diplomatic missions thanks to the Lateran Treaty and are commonly defined as “extraterritorial areas”.

National and public security

As Vatican City is an enclave within Italy, its military defence is provided by the Italian Armed Forces. There is no formal defence treaty with Italy, as Vatican City is a neutral state. Vatican City has no armed forces of its own, although the Swiss Guard is a military corps of the Holy See responsible for the personal security of the Pope, and residents in the state. Soldiers of the Swiss Guard are entitled to hold Vatican City State passports and nationality.

Swiss mercenaries were historically recruited by Popes as part of an army for the Papal States. The Pontifical Swiss Guard was founded by Pope Julius II on 22 January 1506 as the Pope’s personal bodyguard and continues to fulfill that function. It is listed in the Annuario Pontificio under “Holy See”, not under “State of Vatican City”. In 2005, the Guard had 134 members. Recruitment is arranged by a special agreement between the Holy See and Switzerland.

All recruits must be Catholic, unmarried males with Swiss citizenship who have completed their basic training with the Swiss Armed Forces with certificates of good conduct, be between the ages of 19 and 30, and be at least 174 cm (5 ft 9 in) in height. Members are equipped with small arms and the traditional halberd, and trained in bodyguarding tactics. Together with the Corps of Gendarmerie of Vatican City, the Swiss Guard have roles in the Italy-Vatican border control. The Palatine Guard and the Noble Guard, the last armed forces of the Vatican City State, were disbanded by Pope Paul VI in 1970.

As the entire territory of Vatican City has been listed on the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection and, in 1984, among World Heritage Sites, the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict provides international legal protection against armed conflicts. A large part of the historical documents of the very extensive Vatican Apostolic Archive is stored in the “Bunker”, which was inaugurated in 1980, a two-storey reinforced concrete vault, under the Cortile della Pigna, equipped with systems for fire protection, climate and humidity control, and physical security.

Civil defence is the responsibility of the Corps of Firefighters of the Vatican City State, the national fire brigade. Dating its origins to the early nineteenth century, the Corps in its present form was established in 1941. It is responsible for fire fighting, and civil defence scenarios including flood, natural disaster, and mass casualty incident. The Corps is governmentally supervised through the Directorate for Security Services and Civil Defence, which is also responsible for the Gendarmerie (see below).

The Gendarmerie Corps (Corpo della Gendarmeria) is the gendarmerie, or police and security force, of Vatican City and the extraterritorial properties of the Holy See. The corps is responsible for security, public order, border control, traffic control, criminal investigation, and other general police duties in Vatican City including providing security for the Pope outside of Vatican City. The corps has 130 personnel and is a part of the Directorate for Security Services and Civil Defence (which also includes the Vatican Fire Brigade), an organ of the Governorate of Vatican City.

Even though St. Peter’s Square is part of Vatican territory, it is normally safeguarded by Italian police forces.

Crime in Vatican City consists largely of purse snatching, pickpocketing and shoplifting by outsiders. The tourist foot-traffic in St. Peter’s Square is one of the main locations for pickpockets in Vatican City. If crimes are committed in Saint Peter’s Square, the perpetrators may be arrested and tried by the Italian authorities, since that area is normally patrolled by Italian police.

Under the Lateran Treaty, Italy will, at the request of the Holy See, punish individuals for crimes committed within the Vatican City and will itself proceed against the person who committed the offence, if that person takes refuge in Italian territory. Persons accused of crimes recognised as such both in Italy and in Vatican City that are committed in Italian territory will be handed over to the Italian authorities if they take refuge in the Vatican City or in buildings that enjoy immunity under the treaty.

The Vatican City has no prison system, apart from a few detention cells for pre-trial detention. People convicted of committing crimes in the Vatican serve terms in Italian prisons (Polizia Penitenziaria), with costs covered by the Vatican.

Vatican City State is a recognised national territory under international law. The Holy See conducts diplomatic relations on its behalf, in addition to the Holy See’s own diplomacy, entering into international agreements in its regard. Vatican City thus has no diplomatic service of its own.

Because of space limitations, Vatican City is one of the few countries in the world that is unable to host embassies. Foreign embassies to the Holy See are located in the city of Rome. Only during the Second World War were the staff of some embassies accredited to the Holy See given what hospitality was possible within the narrow confines of Vatican City –embassies such as that of the United Kingdom while Rome was held by the Axis Powers and Germany’s when the Allies controlled Rome.

The size of Vatican City is unrelated to the large global reach exercised by the Holy See as an entity quite distinct from the state.

Vatican City State itself participates in some international organizations whose functions relate to the state as a geographical entity, distinct from the non-territorial legal persona of the Holy See. These organizations are much less numerous than those in which the Holy See participates either as a member or with observer status. They include the following eight, in each of which Vatican City State holds membership:

• European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT)
• European Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Eutelsat IGO)
• International Grains Council (IGC)
• International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS)
• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO)
• Interpol
• Universal Postal Union (UPU)

It also participates in:

• World Medical Association
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

The Vatican City is not a member of the United Nations (UN), but the Holy See was granted observer status to the United Nations General Assembly in 1968; the only other country in a similar position is the partially recognised State of Palestine. Since it is not a member of the UN, the Vatican City is not subjected to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ). It engages with UN specialized agencies through its observer status, including the Central Emergency Response Fund, to which it contributed US$20,000 between 2006 and 2022.

The Vatican City State is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). In Europe, only Belarus is also a non-party, non-signatory state. Ukraine and Monaco are signatory states that have not ratified and Russia withdrew from it in 2016.

The Vatican City State is not a member of the European Court of Human Rights. Among European states, Belarus is also not a member, while Russia has ceased to be part of it after being expelled from the Council of Europe following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The OECD‘s “Common Reporting Standard” (CRS), aiming at preventing tax evasion and money laundering, has also not been signed. The Vatican City State has been criticized for money laundering practises in the past decades.^] The only other country in Europe that has not agreed to sign the CRS is Belarus.

The Vatican City State is one of few countries in the world that does not provide any publicly available financial data to the International Monetary Fund.

Economy

The Vatican City State budget includes the Vatican Museums and post office and is supported financially by the sale of stamps, coins, medals and tourist mementos; by fees for admission to museums; and by publications sales. The incomes and living standards of lay workers are comparable to those of counterparts who work in the city of Rome Other industries include printing, the production of mosaics, and the manufacture of staff uniforms.

The Institute for Works of Religion (IOR, Istituto per le Opere di Religione), also known as the Vatican Bank, is a financial agency situated in the Vatican that conducts worldwide financial activities. It has multilingual ATMs with instructions in Latin, possibly the only ATM in the world with this feature.

Vatican City issues its own coins and stamps. It has used the Euro as its currency since January 1999, owing to a special agreement with the European Union. Euro coins and notes were introduced on 1 January 2002 — the Vatican City does not issue euro banknotes. Issuance of euro-denominated coins is strictly limited by treaty. More coins than usual are allowed in a year with a new papacy. Because of their rarity, Vatican euro coins are highly sought by collectors.^[121] Until the adoption of the Euro, Vatican coinage and stamps were denominated in their own Vatican lira currency, which was on par with the Italian lira.

Vatican City State, which employs nearly 2,000 people, had a surplus of 6.7 million euros in 2007. It ran a deficit in 2008 of over 15 million euros.

In 2012, the US Department of State’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report listed Vatican City for the first time among the nations of concern for money-laundering, placing it in the middle category, which includes countries such as Ireland, but not among the most vulnerable countries, which include the United States itself, Germany, Italy, and Russia.

In February 2014, the Vatican announced it was establishing a secretariat for the economy, to be responsible for all economic, financial, and administrative activities of the Holy See and the Vatican City State, headed by Cardinal George Pell. This followed the charging of two senior clerics including a monsignor with money laundering offences. Pope Francis appointed an auditor-general authorized to carry out random audits of any agency at any time and engaged a US financial services company to review the Vatican’s 19,000 accounts, to ensure compliance with international money laundering practices. The pontiff appointed the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See as the Vatican’s central bank, with responsibilities similar to other central banks around the world.

In 2022, the Vatican planned to release NFTs of its museum collection.

The Vatican City has a reasonably well-developed transport network considering its size, consisting mostly of a piazza and walkways. As a state that is 1.05 kilometres (1,150 yards) long and 0.85 km (930 yd) wide, it has a small transportation system, with no airports or highways.

The only aviation facility in Vatican City is the Vatican City Heliport. Vatican City is one of the few independent countries without an airport, and is served by the airports that serve the city of Rome, Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport and to a lesser extent Ciampino Airport.

There is a standard gauge Vatican Railway and a Vatican City railway station, mainly used to transport freight. It is connected to Italy’s network at Rome’s Roma San Pietro railway station by an 852-metre-long (932 yd) spur, 300 metres (330 yd) of which is within Vatican territory. Pope John XXIII was the first Pope to use the railway. Pope John Paul II rarely used it

The closest metro station is Ottaviano – San Pietro – Musei Vaticani.

The City is served by an independent, modern telephone system named the Vatican Telephone Service.

The Vatican controls its own Internet top-level domain, which is registered as (.va). Broadband service is widely provided within Vatican City. Vatican City has a radio ITU prefix, HV, and this is sometimes used by amateur radio operators.

Vatican Radio, which was organized by Guglielmo Marconi, broadcasts on short-wave, medium-wave and FM frequencies and on the Internet. Its main transmission antennae are located in Italian territory, and exceed Italian environmental protection levels of emission. For this reason, the Vatican Radio has been sued. Television services are provided through another entity, the Vatican Television Center.

L’Osservatore Romano is the multilingual semi-official newspaper of the Holy See. It is published by a private corporation under the direction of Catholic laymen, but reports on official information. The official texts of documents are in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the official gazette of the Holy See, which has an appendix for documents of the Vatican City State.

Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Center, and L’Osservatore Romano are organs of the Holy See. They are listed in the Annuario Pontificio, which places them in the section “Institutions linked with the Holy See”, ahead of the sections on the Holy See’s diplomatic service abroad and the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, after which is placed the section on the State of Vatican City.

A postal system (Poste Vaticane) was created on 13 February 1929. On 1 August, the state started to release its own postal stamps, under the authority of the Philatelic and Numismatic Office of the Vatican City State. The city’s postal service is sometimes said to be “the best in the world”, and faster than the postal service in Rome.

The international postal country code prefix is SCV. The postal code is 00120 – altogether SCV-00120.

Sustainability

The Vatican has implemented several environmental initiatives aimed to reduce its ecological footprint. Since 2008, the Vatican has expanded its solar energy systems, including the installation of photovoltaic panels at various locations such as the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall. The city-state has introduced 35 electric vehicle charging stations to promote the use of electric vehicles and intends to gradually replace State-owned cars with electric vehicles.

Well before the European Union‘s 2021 deadline, Vatican City successfully banned single-use plastics in 2019, reducing plastic waste. The Vatican’s waste management system has improved, achieving a recycling rate of 55% for municipal solid waste, with a goal of reaching the EU standard of 70-75%. Energy efficiency measures, such as installing LED lighting in St. Peter’s Basilica and transitioning to digital document management, have been implemented to reduce energy consumption and paper use. These efforts reflect the Vatican’s commitment to the vision of Pope Francis‘s encyclical Laudato si’ and the Apostolic Exhortation Laudate Deum.

Demographics

As of 2024, Vatican City has a population of 882 residents, regardless of citizenship. There are 372 Vatican citizens residing elsewhere, consisting of diplomats of the Holy See to other countries and cardinals residing in Rome

The population is composed of clergy, other religious members, laypeople serving the state (such as the Swiss Guard) and their family members. In 2013, there were 13 families of the employees of the Holy See living in Vatican City. In 2019, there were 20 children of the Swiss Guards living at the Vatican. All citizens, residents, and places of worship in the city are Catholic. The city receives thousands of tourists and workers every day.

Vatican City has no formally enacted official language, but, unlike the Holy See which most often uses Latin for the authoritative version of its official documents, Vatican City uses only Italian in its legislation and official communications. Italian is the everyday language used by most of those who work in the state. In the Swiss Guard, Swiss German is the language used for giving commands. Individual guards take their oath of loyalty in their own languages: German, French, Italian or Romansh. The official websites of the Holy See and of Vatican City are primarily in Italian, with versions of their pages in a large number of languages, to varying extents.

Citizenship

Unlike citizenship of other states, which is based either on jus sanguinis (birth from a citizen, even outside the state’s territory) or on jus soli (birth within the territory of the state), citizenship of Vatican City is granted on jus officii, namely on the grounds of appointment to work in a certain capacity in the service of the Holy See. It usually ceases upon the cessation of the appointment. Citizenship is extended to the spouse and children of a citizen, provided that they are living together in the city. Some individuals are authorized to reside in the city but do not qualify or choose not to request citizenship. Anyone who loses Vatican citizenship and does not possess other citizenship automatically becomes an Italian citizen, as provided in the Lateran Treaty.

The Holy See, not being a country, issues only diplomatic and service passports, whereas Vatican City issues ordinary passports for its citizens.

Statistical oddities

In statistics comparing countries in per capita or per area metrics, Vatican City is often an outlier – these stem from the state’s small size and ecclesiastical function. For example, as most of the roles which would confer citizenship are reserved for men, the gender ratio of the citizenship is several men per woman. Further oddities are petty crimes against tourists, resulting in a very high per-capita crime rate, and the city-state leading the world in per-capita wine consumption due to its sacramental use. A jocular illustration of these anomalies is sometimes made by calculating a “popes per km²” statistic, which is greater than two because Vatican City is less than half a square kilometre in area.

The Vatican City is home to some of the most famous art in the world. St. Peter’s Basilica, designed by a succession of architects including Bramante, Michelangelo, Giacomo della Porta, Maderno and Bernini, is a renowned work of Renaissance architecture. The Sistine Chapel is famous for its frescos, which include works by Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, as well as the ceiling and Last Judgment by Michelangelo. The interiors of the Vatican were decorated by artists including Raphael and Fra Angelico.

The Vatican Apostolic Library and the collections of the Vatican Museums are of the highest historical, scientific and cultural importance. Added by UNESCO to the List of World Heritage Sites in 1984, the Vatican is the only site to consist of an entire state. It is the only UNESCO site registered as a centre containing monuments in the “International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection” according to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Science

Following in the footsteps of the Pontifical Academy of New Lincei founded by Pope Pius IX in 1847, Pope Pius XI founded the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 1936, which, located in the Casina Pio IV, guarantees academic freedom to contribute to mathematical, physical (including astronomy, Earth sciences, physics and chemistry) and natural sciences (e.g., medicine, neuroscience, biology, genetics, biochemistry), and confront epistemological issues, with interests also in the history of science. Among the academicians, there are or were the astrophysicist Martin John Rees, the mathematician Cédric Villani, the theoretical physicist Edward Witten, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureates Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier, and Ernest Rutherford, the geneticists Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Francis Collins, the head transplant pioneer Robert J. White, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Alexander Fleming.

The Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is another pontifical academy of the Holy See located in the Vatican City, which deals with anthropology, communication studies, information sciences, cybernetics, economics, education, geography, history, law, linguistics, political science, psychology, behavioral sciences, sociology and demography. The seat of the Pontifical Academy for Life, whose domains are bioethics and ethics of technology, is at San Callisto complex, a Vatican extraterritorial property.

The Vatican Observatory, whose origins date back to the 16th century, continues to contribute to astronomical research, especially through a partnership with the University of Arizona and the infrared and optical Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope in Arizona, and to astronomical education and “popular science” projects. As a member of the International Astronomical Union and the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics, it deals with research on cosmological models, stellar classification, binary stars, and nebulae. It has contributed to philosophical interdisciplinary studies at the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, California and research on the history of astronomy thanks to its extensive library, which includes a meteorite collection.^[156]

Some of the Vatican telescopes of the astronomical institution named Vatican Observatory participated in creating the Carte du Ciel, but they have progressively become useless or limited for research purposes due to light pollution in their locations: Vatican City (the Gardens of Vatican City and near St. Peter’s Basilica) and the Vatican extraterritorial Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

Pope

The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of state of the Papal States, and since 1929 of the much smaller Vatican City state. From a Catholic viewpoint, the primacy of the bishop of Rome is largely derived from his role as the apostolic successor to Saint Peter, to whom primacy was conferred by Jesus, who gave Peter the Keys of Heaven and the powers of “binding and loosing”, naming him as the “rock” upon which the Church would be built. The most recent pope was Francis, who died on 21 April 2025. The papacy is vacant until a new pope is chosen in the upcoming 2025 papal conclave.

Although his office is called the papacy, the jurisdiction of the episcopal see is called the Holy See. The word “see” comes from the Latin for ‘seat’ or ‘chair’ (sede, referring in particular to the one on which the newly elected pope sits during the enthronement ceremony. It is the Holy See that is the sovereign entity under international law headquartered in the distinctively independent Vatican City, a city-state which forms a geographical enclave within the conurbation of Rome, established by the Lateran Treaty in 1929 between Fascist Italy and the Holy See to ensure its temporal and spiritual independence. The Holy See is recognized by its adherence at various levels to international organizations and by means of its diplomatic relations and political accords with many independent states.

According to Catholic tradition, the apostolic see of Rome was founded by Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the first century. The papacy is one of the most enduring institutions in the world and has had a prominent part in human history. In ancient times, the popes helped spread Christianity and intervened to find resolutions in various doctrinal disputes. In the Middle Ages, they played a role of secular importance in Western Europe, often acting as arbitrators between Christian monarchs. In addition to the expansion of Christian faith and doctrine, modern popes are involved in ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, charitable work, and the defence of human rights.

Over time, the papacy accrued broad secular and political influence, eventually rivalling those of territorial rulers. In recent centuries, the temporal authority of the papacy has declined and the office is now largely focused on religious matters. By contrast, papal claims of spiritual authority have been increasingly firmly expressed over time, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra—literally “from the chair (of Saint Peter)“—to issue a formal definition of faith or morals. The pope is considered one of the world’s most powerful people due to the extensive diplomatic, cultural, and spiritual influence of his position on both 1.3 billion Catholics and those outside the Catholic faith, and because he heads the world’s largest non-government provider of education and health care, with a vast network of charities.

History

Title and etymology

The word pope derives from Ancient Greek πάππας (páppas) ‘father’. In the early centuries of Christianity, this title was applied, especially in the East, to all bishops and other senior clergy, and later became reserved in the West to the bishop of Rome during the reign of Pope Leo I (440–461), a reservation made official only in the 11th century. The earliest record of the use of the title of ‘pope’ was in regard to the by-then-deceased patriarch of Alexandria, Heraclas (232–248). The earliest recorded use of the title “pope” in English dates to the mid-10th century, when it was used in reference to the 7th century Roman Pope Vitalian in an Old English translation of Bede‘s Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum.

Position within the Church

The Catholic Church teaches that the pastoral office, the office of shepherding the Church, that was held by the apostles, as a group or “college” with Saint Peter as their head, is now held by their successors, the bishops, with the bishop of Rome (the pope) as their head. Thus is derived another title by which the pope is known, that of “supreme pontiff”. The Catholic Church teaches that Jesus personally appointed Peter as the visible head of the Church, and the Catholic Church’s dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium makes a clear distinction between apostles and bishops, presenting the latter as the successors of the former, with the pope as successor of Peter, in that he is head of the bishops as Peter was head of the apostles. Some historians argue against the notion that Peter was the first bishop of Rome, noting that the episcopal see in Rome can be traced back no earlier than the 3rd century.

The writings of Irenaeus, a Church Father who wrote around 180 AD, reflect a belief that Peter “founded and organized” the Church at Rome. Moreover, Irenaeus was not the first to write of Peter’s presence in the early Roman Church. The Church of Rome wrote in a letter to the Corinthians (which is traditionally attributed to Clement of Rome 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. Ignatius of Antioch wrote shortly after Clement; 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, such as Emperor Constantine’s erection of the “Old St. Peter’s Basilica” on the location of Saint Peter’s tomb, as held and given to him by Rome’s Christian community, many scholars agree that Peter was martyred in Rome under Nero, although some scholars argue that he may have been martyred in Palestine.

Although open to historical debate, first-century Christian communities may have had a group of presbyter-bishops functioning as guides of their local churches. Gradually, episcopal sees were established in metropolitan areas. Antioch may have developed such a structure before Rome. In Rome, there were over time at various junctures rival claimants to be the rightful bishop, though again Irenaeus stressed the validity of one line of bishops from the time of St. Peter up to his contemporary Pope Victor I and listed them. 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, but not necessarily monarchical bishops. Documents of the 1st century and early second century indicate that the bishop of Rome had some kind of pre-eminence and prominence in the Church as a whole, as even a letter from the bishop, or patriarch, of Antioch acknowledged the bishop of Rome as “a first among equals”, though the detail of what this meant is unclear.

Early Christianity (c. 30–325)

Sources suggest that at first, the terms episcopos and presbyter were used interchangeably, with the consensus among scholars being that by the turn of the 1st and 2nd centuries, local congregations were led by bishops and presbyters, whose duties of office overlapped or were indistinguishable from one another. Some say that there was probably “no single ‘monarchical’ bishop in Rome before the middle of the 2nd century … and likely later.”

In the early Christian era, Rome and a few other cities had claims on the leadership of worldwide Church. James the Just, known as “the brother of the Lord”, served as head of the Jerusalem church, which is still honoured as the “Mother Church” in Orthodox tradition. Alexandria had been a center of Jewish learning and became a center of Christian learning. Rome had a large congregation early in the apostolic period whom Paul the Apostle addressed in his Epistle to the Romans, and according to tradition Paul was martyred there.

During the 1st century of the Church (c. 30–130), the Roman capital became recognized as a Christian center of exceptional importance. The church there, at the end of the century, wrote an epistle to the Church in Corinth intervening in a major dispute, and apologizing for not having taken action earlier. There are a few other references of that time to recognition of the authoritative primacy of the Roman See outside of Rome. In the Ravenna Document of 13 October 2007, theologians chosen by the Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Churches stated:

In AD 195, Pope Victor I, in what is seen as an exercise of Roman authority over other churches, excommunicated the Quartodecimans for observing Easter on the 14th of Nisan, the date of the Jewish Passover, a tradition handed down by John the Evangelist (see Easter controversy). Celebration of Easter on a Sunday, as insisted on by the pope, is the system that has prevailed (see computus).

Nicaea to East–West Schism (325–1054)

The Edict of Milan in 313 granted freedom to all religions in the Roman Empire, beginning the Peace of the Church. In 325, the First Council of Nicaea condemned Arianism, declaring trinitarianism dogmatic, and in its sixth canon recognized the special role of the Sees of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. Great defenders of Trinitarian faith included the popes, especially Liberius, who was exiled to Berea by Constantius II for his Trinitarian faith, Damasus I, and several other bishops.

In 380, the Edict of Thessalonica declared Nicene Christianity to be the state religion of the empire, with the name “Catholic Christians” reserved for those who accepted that faith. While the civil power in the Eastern Roman Empire controlled the church, and the patriarch of Constantinople, the capital, wielded much power, in the Western Roman Empire, the bishops of Rome were able to consolidate the influence and power they already possessed. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, barbarian tribes were converted to Arian Christianity or Nicene Christianity; Clovis I, king of the Franks, was the first important barbarian ruler to convert to the mainstream church rather than Arianism, allying himself with the papacy. Other tribes, such as the Visigoths, later abandoned Arianism in favor of the established church.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the pope served as a source of authority and continuity. Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604) administered the church with strict reform. From an ancient senatorial family, Gregory worked with the stern judgement and discipline typical of ancient Roman rule. Theologically, he represents the shift from the classical to the medieval outlook; his popular writings are full of dramatic miracles, potent relics, demons, angels, ghosts, and the approaching end of the world.

Gregory’s successors were largely dominated by the exarch of Ravenna, the Byzantine emperor‘s representative in the Italian Peninsula. These humiliations, the weakening of the Byzantine Empire in the face of the Muslim conquests, and the inability of the emperor to protect the papal estates against the Lombards, made Pope Stephen II turn from Emperor Constantine V. He appealed to the Franks to protect his lands. Pepin the Short subdued the Lombards and donated Italian land to the papacy. When Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne (800) as emperor, he established the precedent that, in Western Europe, no man would be emperor without being crowned by a pope.

The low point of the papacy was 867–1049. This period includes the Saeculum obscurum, the Crescentii era, and the Tusculan Papacy. The papacy came under the control of vying political factions. Popes were variously imprisoned, starved, killed, and deposed by force. The Counts of Tusculum made and unmade popes for fifty years. Pope John XII, the great-grandson of one such count, held orgies of debauchery in the Lateran Palace. Emperor Otto I had John accused in an ecclesiastical court, which deposed him and elected a layman as Pope Leo VIII. John mutilated the Imperial representatives in Rome and had himself reinstated as pope. Conflict between the Emperor and the papacy continued, and eventually dukes in league with the emperor were buying bishops and popes almost openly.

In 1049, Leo IX travelled to the major cities of Europe to deal with the church’s moral problems firsthand, notably simony and clerical marriage and concubinage. With his long journey, he restored the prestige of the papacy in Northern Europe. From the 7th century, it became common for European monarchies and nobility to found churches and perform investiture or deposition of clergy in their states and fiefdoms, their personal interests causing corruption among the clergy. This practice had become common in part because the prelates and secular rulers were also often participants in public life.

To combat this, and other practices that had been seen as corrupting, between the years 900 and 1050, centres emerged promoting ecclesiastical reform, the most important being the Abbey of Cluny, which spread its ideals throughout Europe This reform movement gained strength with the election of Pope Gregory VII in 1073, who adopted a series of measures in the movement known as the Gregorian Reform, in order to fight strongly against simony and the abuse of civil power and try to restore ecclesiastical discipline, including clerical celibacy.

In 1122, this conflict between popes and secular autocratic rulers such as the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and King Henry I of England, known as the Investiture controversy, was resolved by the Concordat of Worms, in which Pope Callixtus II decreed that clerics were to be invested by clerical leaders, and temporal rulers by lay investiture. Soon after, Pope Alexander III began reforms that would lead to the establishment of canon law

Starting at the beginning of the 7th century, Islamic conquests had succeeded in controlling much of the southern Mediterranean. This was perceived as a threat to Christianity. In 1095, the Byzantine emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, asked for military aid from Pope Urban II in the ongoing Byzantine–Seljuq wars. Urban, at the council of Clermont, called the First Crusade to assist the Byzantine Empire to regain the old Christian territories, especially Jerusalem.

With the East–West Schism, the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church split definitively in 1054. This fracture was caused more by political events than by slight divergences of creed. Popes had galled the Byzantine emperors by siding with the king of the Franks, crowning a rival Roman emperor, appropriating the Exarchate of Ravenna, and driving into Greek Italy.

In the Middle Ages, popes struggled with monarchs over power. From 1309 to 1377, the pope resided not in Rome but in Avignon. The Avignon Papacy was notorious for greed and corruption. During this period, the pope was effectively an ally of the Kingdom of France, alienating France’s enemies, such as the Kingdom of England.

The pope was understood to have the power to draw on the Treasury of Merit built up by the saints and by Christ, so that he could grant indulgences, reducing one’s time in purgatory. The concept that a monetary fine or donation accompanied contrition, confession, and prayer eventually gave way to the common assumption that indulgences depended on a simple monetary contribution. The popes condemned misunderstandings and abuses, but were too pressed for income to exercise effective control over indulgences.

Popes also contended with the cardinals, who sometimes attempted to assert the authority of Catholic Ecumenical Councils over the pope’s. Conciliarism holds that the supreme authority of the church lies with a General Council, not with the pope. Its foundations were laid early in the 13th century, and it culminated in the 15th century with Jean Gerson as its leading spokesman. The failure of Conciliarism to gain broad acceptance after the 15th century is taken as a factor in the Protestant Reformation.

Various Antipopes challenged papal authority, especially during the Western Schism (1378–1417). It came to a close when the Council of Constance, at the high point of Concilliarism, decided among the papal claimants. The Eastern Church continued to decline with the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, undercutting Constantinople’s claim to equality with Rome. Twice an Eastern emperor tried to force the Eastern Church to reunify with the West. First in the Second Council of Lyon (1272–1274) and secondly in the Council of Florence (1431–1449). Papal claims of superiority were a sticking point in reunification, which failed in any event. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire captured Constantinople and ended the Byzantine Empire.

Protestant Reformers criticized the papacy as corrupt and characterized the pope as the antichrist^. Popes instituted a Catholic Reformatio (1560–1648), which addressed the challenges of the Protestant Reformation and instituted internal reforms. Pope Paul III initiated the Council of Trent (1545–1563), whose definitions of doctrine and whose reforms sealed the triumph of the papacy over elements in the church that sought conciliation with Protestants and opposed papal claims.

Gradually forced to give up secular power to the increasingly assertive European nation states, the popes focused on spiritual issues. In 1870, the First Vatican Council proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility for the most solemn occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra when issuing a definition of faith or morals.^[10] Later the same year, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy seized Rome from the pope’s control and substantially completed the unification of Italy.

In 1929, the Lateran Treaty between the Kingdom of Italy and the Holy See established Vatican City as an independent city-state, guaranteeing papal independence from secular rule. In 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary as dogma, the only time a pope has spoken ex cathedra since papal infallibility was explicitly declared. The Primacy of St. Peter, the controversial doctrinal basis of the pope’s authority, continues to divide the eastern and western churches and to separate Protestants from Rome.

Early Christian mentions

Church Fathers

The writings of several Early Church fathers contain references to the authority and unique position held by the bishops of Rome, providing valuable insight into the recognition and significance of the papacy during the early Christian era. These sources attest to the acknowledgement of the bishop of Rome as an influential figure within the Church, with some emphasizing the importance of adherence to Rome’s teachings and decisions. Such references served to establish the concept of papal primacy and have continued to inform Catholic theology and practice.

In his letters, Cyprian of Carthage (c. 210 – 258 AD) recognized the bishop of Rome as the successor of St. Peter in his Letter 55 (c. 251 AD), which is addressed to Pope Cornelius, and affirmed his unique authority in the early Christian Church.

Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130 – c. 202 AD), a prominent Christian theologian of the second century, provided a list of early popes in his work Against Heresies III. The list covers the period from Saint Peter to Pope Eleutherius who served from 174 to 189 AD.

Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 108/140 AD) wrote in his “Epistle to the Romans” that the church in Rome is “the church that presides over love”.

Augustine of Hippo (354–430), in his Letter 53, wrote a list of 38 popes from Saint Peter to Siricius. The order of this list differs from the lists of Irenaeus and the Annuario Pontificio. Augustine’s list claims that Linus was succeeded by Clement and Clement was succeeded by Anacletus as in the list of Eusebius, while the other two lists switch the positions of Clement and Anacletus.

Other early Christian mentions

Eusebius (c. 260/265 – 339) mentions Linus as Saint Peter’s successor and Clement as the third bishop of Rome in his book Church History. As recorded by Eusebius, Clement worked with Saint Paul as his “co-laborer”.

Tertullian (c. 155 – c. 220 AD) wrote in his work “The Prescription Against Heretics” about the authority of the church in Rome. In this work, Tertullian said that the Church in Rome has the authority of the Apostles because of its apostolic foundation.

According to the same book, Clement of Rome was ordained by Saint Peter as the bishop of Rome.

Optatus the bishop of Milevis in Numidia (today’s Algeria) and a contemporary of the Donatist schism, presents a detailed analysis of the origins, beliefs, and practices of the Donatists, as well as the events and debates surrounding the schism, in his book The Schism of the Donatists (367 A.D). In the book, Optatus wrote about the position of the bishop of Rome in maintaining the unity of the Church.

Saint Peter and the origin of the papal office

The Catholic Church teaches that, within the Christian community, the bishops as a body have succeeded to the body of the apostles (apostolic succession) and the bishop of Rome has succeeded to Saint Peter. Scriptural texts proposed in support of Peter’s special position in relation to the church include:

• Matthew 16:I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
• Luke 22:Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
• John 21:Feed my sheep.

New Eliakim

The symbolic keys in the Papal coats of arms are a reference to the phrase “the keys of the kingdom of heaven” in the first of these texts. Some Protestant writers have maintained that the “rock” that Jesus speaks of in this text is Jesus himself or the faith expressed by Peter.^{[95][96][97][98][99][100]} This idea is undermined by the Biblical usage of “Cephas”, which is the masculine form of “rock” in Aramaic, to describe Peter.^{[101][102][103]} The Encyclopædia Britannica comments that “the consensus of the great majority of scholars today is that the most obvious and traditional understanding should be construed, namely, that rock refers to the person of Peter”.^[104]

According to the Catholic Church, the pope is also the new Eliakim, a figure in the Old Testament of the Bible who directed the affairs of the royal court, managed the palace staff, and handled state affairs. Isaiah also describes him as having the key to the house of David, which symbolizes his authority and power.

Both Matthew 16:18–19 and Isaiah 22:22 show similarities between Eliakim and Peter getting keys which symbolize power. Eliakim gets the power to close and open, while Peter gets the power to bind and loose. According to the Book of Isaiah, Eliakim receives the keys and power to close and open.

According to the book of Matthew, Peter also gets keys and power to bind and loose.

In the Books of Isaiah 22:3 and Matthew 16:18, both Eliakim and Peter are compared to an object. Eliakim to a peg (a structure that is driven into a wall or other structure to provide support and stability) while Peter to a rock.

In Matthew 16:18 Peter was compared to a rock.

Election, death and resignation

The pope was originally chosen by those senior clergymen resident in and near Rome. In 1059, the electorate was restricted to the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and the individual votes of all cardinal electors were made equal in 1179. The electors are now limited to those who have not reached 80 on the day before the death or resignation of a pope. The pope does not need to be a cardinal elector or indeed a cardinal; since the pope is the bishop of Rome, only those who can be ordained a bishop can be elected, which means that any male baptized Catholic is eligible. The last to be elected when not yet a bishop was Gregory XVI in 1831, the last to be elected when not even a priest was Leo X in 1513, and the last to be elected when not a cardinal was Urban VI in 1378. If someone who is not a bishop is elected, he must be given episcopal ordination before the election is announced to the people.

The Second Council of Lyon was convened on 7 May 1274, to regulate the election of the pope. This Council decreed that the cardinal electors must meet within ten days of the pope’s death, and that they must remain in seclusion until a pope has been elected; this was prompted by the three-year sede vacante following the death of Clement IV in 1268. By the mid-16th century, the electoral process had evolved into its present form, allowing for variation in the time between the death of the pope and the meeting of the cardinal electors. Traditionally, the vote was conducted by acclamation, by selection (by committee), or by plenary vote. Acclamation was the simplest procedure, consisting entirely of a voice vote.

Since 1878, the election of the pope has taken place in the Sistine Chapel, in a sequestered meeting called a “conclave” (so called because the cardinal electors are theoretically locked in, cum clave, i.e., with key, until they elect a new pope). Three cardinals are chosen by lot to collect the votes of absent cardinal electors (by reason of illness), three are chosen by lot to count the votes, and three are chosen by lot to review the count of the votes. The ballots are distributed and each cardinal elector writes the name of his choice on it and pledges aloud that he is voting for “one whom under God I think ought to be elected” before folding and depositing his vote on a plate atop a large chalice placed on the altar.

For the Papal conclave, 2005, a special urn was used for this purpose instead of a chalice and plate. The plate is then used to drop the ballot into the chalice, making it difficult for electors to insert multiple ballots. Before being read, the ballots are counted while still folded; if the number of ballots does not match the number of electors, the ballots are burned unopened and a new vote is held. Otherwise, each ballot is read aloud by the presiding Cardinal, who pierces the ballot with a needle and thread, stringing all the ballots together and tying the ends of the thread to ensure accuracy and honesty. Balloting continues until someone is elected by a two-thirds majority. With the promulgation of Universi Dominici Gregis in 1996, a simple majority after a deadlock of twelve days was allowed, but this was revoked by Pope Benedict XVI by motu proprio in 2007.

One of the most prominent aspects of the papal election process is the means by which the results of a ballot are announced to the world. Once the ballots are counted and bound together, they are burned in a special stove erected in the Sistine Chapel, with the smoke escaping through a small chimney visible from Saint Peter’s Square. The ballots from an unsuccessful vote are burned along with a chemical compound to create black smoke, or fumata nera. Traditionally, wet straw was used to produce the black smoke, but this was not completely reliable. The chemical compound is more reliable than the straw. When a vote is successful, the ballots are burned alone, sending white smoke (fumata bianca) through the chimney and announcing to the world the election of a new pope. Starting with the Papal conclave, 2005, church bells are also rung as a signal that a new pope has been chosen.

The dean of the College of Cardinals then asks two solemn questions of the man who has been elected. First he asks, “Do you freely accept your election as supreme pontiff?” If he replies with the word “Accepto”, his reign begins at that instant. In practice, any cardinal who intends not to accept will explicitly state this before he receives a sufficient number of votes to become pope. The dean asks next, “By what name shall you be called?” The new pope announces the regnal name he has chosen. If the dean himself is elected pope, the vice dean performs this task.

The new pope is led to the Room of Tears, a dressing room where three sets of white papal vestments (immantatio) await in three sizes. Donning the appropriate vestments and reemerging into the Sistine Chapel, the new pope is given the “Fisherman’s Ring” by the camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. The pope assumes a place of honour as the rest of the cardinals wait in turn to offer their first “obedience” (adoratio) and to receive his blessing. The cardinal protodeacon announces from a balcony over St. Peter’s Square the following proclamation: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum! Habemus Papam! (“I announce to you a great joy! We have a pope!”). He announces the new pope’s Christian name along with his newly chosen regnal name.

Until 1978, the pope’s election was followed in a few days by the papal coronation, which started with a procession with great pomp and circumstance from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s Basilica, with the newly elected pope borne in the sedia gestatoria. After a solemn Papal Mass, the new pope was crowned with the triregnum (papal tiara) and he gave for the first time as pope the famous blessing Urbi et Orbi (“to the City [Rome] and to the World”). Another renowned part of the coronation was the lighting of a bundle of flax at the top of a gilded pole, which would flare brightly for a moment and then promptly extinguish, as he said, Sic transit gloria mundi (“Thus passes worldly glory”). A similar warning against papal hubris made on this occasion was the traditional exclamation, “Annos Petri non-videbis”, reminding the newly crowned pope that he would not live to see his rule lasting as long as that of St. Peter. According to tradition, he headed the church for 35 years and has thus far been the longest-reigning pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

For centuries, starting from 1378 onwards, those elected to the papacy were predominantly Italians. Prior to the election of the Polish-born John Paul II in 1978, the last non-Italian was Adrian VI of the Netherlands, elected in 1522. John Paul II was followed by election of the German-born Benedict XVI, who was in turn followed by Argentine-born Francis, the first non-European after 1272 years and the first Latin American (albeit of Italian ancestry).

Death

The current regulations regarding a papal interregnum—that is, a sede vacante (“vacant seat”, literally ‘while the see is vacant’)—were promulgated by Pope John Paul II in his 1996 document Universi Dominici Gregis. Sede vacante is a papal interregnum, the period between the death or resignation of a pope and the election of his successor. From this term is derived the term sedevacantism, which designates a category of dissident Catholics who maintain that there is no canonically and legitimately elected pope, and that there is therefore a sede vacante.

During the sede vacante period, the College of Cardinals is collectively responsible for the government of the Church and of the Vatican itself, under the direction of the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church. Canon law specifically forbids the cardinals from introducing any innovation in the government of the Church during the vacancy of the Holy See. Any decision that requires the assent of the pope has to wait until the new pope has been elected and accepts office.

In recent centuries, when a pope was judged to have died, it was reportedly traditional for the cardinal camerlengo to confirm the death ceremonially by gently tapping the pope’s head thrice with a silver hammer, calling his birth name each time. This was not done on the deaths of popes John Paul I and John Paul II. The cardinal camerlengo retrieves the Ring of the Fisherman and cuts it in two in the presence of the cardinals. The pope’s seals are defaced, to keep them from ever being used again, and his personal apartment is sealed.

The body lies in state for several days before being interred in the crypt of a leading church or cathedral; all popes who have died in the 20th and 21st centuries have been interred in St. Peter’s Basilica. A nine-day period of mourning (novendialis) follows the interment.

Resignation

It is highly unusual for a pope to resign. The 1983 Code of Canon Law states, “If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone.” Benedict XVI, who vacated the Holy See on 28 February 2013, was the most recent to do so, and the first since Gregory XII‘s resignation in 1415.

Titles

Regnal name

Popes adopt a new name on their accession, known as papal name, in Italian and Latin. Currently, after a new pope is elected and accepts the election, he is asked, “By what name shall you be called?” The new pope chooses the name by which he will be known from that point on. The senior cardinal deacon, or cardinal protodeacon, then appears on the balcony of Saint Peter’s to proclaim the new pope by his birth name, and announce his papal name in Latin. It is customary when referring to popes to translate the regnal name into all local languages. For example, the most recent pope bore the papal name Papa Franciscus in Latin and Papa Francesco in Italian, but Papa Francisco in his native Spanish, Pope Francis in English, etc.

Official list of titles

The official list of titles of the pope, in the order in which they are given in the Annuario Pontificio, is:

The best-known title, that of “pope”, does not appear in the official list, but is commonly used in the titles of documents, and appears, in abbreviated form, in their signatures. Thus Paul VI signed as “Paulus PP. VI”, the “PP.” standing for “papa pontifex” (“pope and pontiff”).

The title “pope” was from the early 3rd century an honorific designation used for any bishop in the West.^[19] In the East, it was used only for the bishop of Alexandria. Marcellinus (d. 304) is the first bishop of Rome shown in sources to have had the title “pope” used of him. From the 6th century, the imperial chancery of Constantinople normally reserved this designation for the bishop of Rome. From the early 6th century, it began to be confined in the West to the bishop of Rome, a practice that was firmly in place by the 11th century

In Eastern Christianity, where the title “pope” is used also of the bishop of Alexandria, the bishop of Rome is often referred to as the “pope of Rome”, regardless of whether the speaker or writer is in communion with Rome or not.

Vicar of Jesus Christ

“Vicar of Jesus Christ” (Vicarius Iesu Christi) is one of the official titles of the pope given in the Annuario Pontificio. It is commonly used in the slightly abbreviated form “vicar of Christ” (vicarius Christi). While it is only one of the terms with which the pope is referred to as “vicar”, it is “more expressive of his supreme headship of the Church on Earth, which he bears in virtue of the commission of Christ and with vicarial power derived from him”, a vicarial power believed to have been conferred on Saint Peter when Christ said to him: “Feed my lambs…Feed my sheep”.

The first record of the application of this title to a bishop of Rome appears in a synod of 495 with reference to Gelasius I. But at that time, and down to the 9th century, other bishops too referred to themselves as vicars of Christ, and for another four centuries this description was sometimes used of kings and even judges, as it had been used in the 5th and 6th centuries to refer to the Byzantine emperor. Earlier still, in the 3rd century, Tertullian used “vicar of Christ” to refer to the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus. Its use specifically for the pope appears in the 13th century in connection with the reforms of Pope Innocent III, as can be observed already in his 1199 letter to Leo I, King of Armeni. Other historians suggest that this title was already used in this way in association with the pontificate of Eugene III (1145–1153).

This title “vicar of Christ” is thus not used of the pope alone and has been used of all bishops since the early centuries. The Second Vatican Council referred to all bishops as “vicars and ambassadors of Christ”, and this description of the bishops was repeated by John Paul II in his encyclical Ut unum sint, 95. The difference is that the other bishops are vicars of Christ for their own local churches, the pope is vicar of Christ for the whole Church.

On at least one occasion the title “vicar of God” (a reference to Christ as God) was used of the pope. The title “vicar of Peter” (vicarius Petri) is used only of the pope, not of other bishops. Variations of it include: “Vicar of the Prince of the Apostles” (Vicarius Principis Apostolorum) and “Vicar of the Apostolic See” (Vicarius Sedis Apostolicae). Saint Boniface described Pope Gregory II as vicar of Peter in the oath of fealty that he took in 722. In today’s Roman Missal, the description “vicar of Peter” is found also in the collect of the Mass for a saint who was a pope.

Supreme pontiff

The term “pontiff” is derived from the Latin: pontifex, which literally means “bridge builder” (pons + facere) and which designated a member of the principal college of priests in pagan Rome. The Latin word was translated into ancient Greek variously: as Ancient Greek: ἱεροδιδάσκαλος, Ancient Greek: ἱερονόμος, Ancient Greek: ἱεροφύλαξ, Ancient Greek: ἱεροφάντης (hierophant), or Ancient Greek: ἀρχιερεύς (archiereus, high priest) The head of the college was known as the Latin: Pontifex Maximus (the greatest pontiff).

In Christian use, pontifex appears in the Vulgate translation of the New Testament to indicate the High Priest of Israel (in the original Koine Greek, ἀρχιερεύς). The term came to be applied to any Christian bishop, but since the 11th century commonly refers specifically to the bishop of Rome, who is more strictly called the “Roman Pontiff”. The use of the term to refer to bishops in general is reflected in the terms “Roman Pontifical” (a book containing rites reserved for bishops, such as confirmation and ordination), and “pontificals” (the insignia of bishops).

The Annuario Pontificio lists as one of the official titles of the pope that of “Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church” (Latin: Summus Pontifex Ecclesiae Universalis). He is also commonly called the supreme pontiff or the sovereign pontiff (Latin: summus pontifex). Pontifex Maximus, similar in meaning to Summus Pontifex, is a title commonly found in inscriptions on papal buildings, paintings, statues and coins, usually abbreviated as “Pont. Max” or “P.M.” The office of Pontifex Maximus, or head of the College of Pontiffs, was held by Julius Caesar and thereafter, by the Roman emperors, until Gratian (375–383) relinquished it. Tertullian, when he had become a Montanist, used the title derisively of either the pope or the bishop of Carthage.^[174] The popes began to use this title regularly only in the 15th century.

Servant of the servants of God

Although the description “servant of the servants of God” (Latin: servus servorum Dei) was also used by other Church leaders, including Augustine of Hippo and Benedict of Nursia, it was first used extensively as a papal title by Gregory the Great, reportedly as a lesson in humility for the patriarch of Constantinople, John the Faster, who had assumed the title “ecumenical patriarch“. It became reserved for the pope in the 12th century and is used in papal bulls and similar important papal documents.

Patriarch of the West

From 1863 to 2005, and again in 2024, the Annuario Pontificio also included the title “patriarch of the West“. This title was first used by Pope Theodore I in 642, and was only used occasionally. Indeed, it did not begin to appear in the pontifical yearbook until 1863. On 22 March 2006, the Vatican released a statement explaining this omission on the grounds of expressing a “historical and theological reality” and of “being useful to ecumenical dialogue”. The title patriarch of the West symbolized the pope’s special relationship with, and jurisdiction over, the Latin Church—and the omission of the title neither symbolizes in any way a change in this relationship, nor distorts the relationship between the Holy See and the Eastern Churches, as solemnly proclaimed by the Second Vatican Council. “Patriarch of the West” was reintroduced to the pope’s list of titles in the 2024 edition of the Annuario Pontifico. The Vatican has not made any statements explaining why the title has been brought back into use.

Other titles

Other titles commonly used are “His Holiness” (either used alone or as an honorific prefix as in “His Holiness Pope Francis”; and as “Your Holiness” as a form of address) and “Holy Father”. In Spanish and Italian, “Beatísimo/Beatissimo Padre” (Most Blessed Father) is often used in preference to “Santísimo/Santissimo Padre” (Most Holy Father). In the medieval period, “Dominus Apostolicus” (“the Apostolic Lord”) was also used.

Pope Francis signed some documents with his name alone, either in Latin (“Franciscus”, as in an encyclical dated 29 June 2013) or in another language. Other documents he signed in accordance with the tradition of using Latin only and including the abbreviated form “PP.”, for the Latin Papa (“Pope”) Popes who have an ordinal numeral in their name traditionally place the abbreviation “PP.” before the ordinal numeral, as in “Benedictus PP. XVI” (Pope Benedict XVI), except in papal bulls of canonization and decrees of ecumenical councils, which a pope signs with the formula, “Ego N. Episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae”, without the numeral, as in “Ego Benedictus Episcopus Ecclesiae catholicae” (I, Benedict, Bishop of the Catholic Church).

Regalia and insignia

• Ring of the Fisherman, a gold or gilt ring decorated with a depiction of St. Peter in a boat casting his net, with the pope’s name around it.
• Umbraculum (better known in the Italian form ombrellino) is a canopy or umbrella consisting of alternating red and gold stripes, which used to be carried above the pope in processions.
• Sedia gestatoria, a mobile throne carried by twelve footmen (palafrenieri) in red uniforms, accompanied by two attendants bearing flabella (fans made of white ostrich feathers), and sometimes a large canopy, carried by eight attendants. The use of the flabella was discontinued by Pope John Paul I. The use of the sedia gestatoria was discontinued by Pope John Paul II.

In heraldry, each pope has his own personal coat of arms. Though unique for each pope, the arms have for several centuries been traditionally accompanied by two keys in saltire (i.e., crossed over one another so as to form an X) behind the escutcheon (shield) (one silver key and one gold key, tied with a red cord), and above them a silver triregnum with three gold crowns and red infulae (lappets—two strips of fabric hanging from the back of the triregnum which fall over the neck and shoulders when worn). This is blazoned: “two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or”.

The 21st century has seen departures from this tradition. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI, while maintaining the crossed keys behind the shield, omitted the papal tiara from his personal coat of arms, replacing it with a mitre with three horizontal lines. Beneath the shield he added the pallium, a papal symbol of authority more ancient than the tiara, the use of which is also granted to metropolitan archbishops as a sign of communion with the See of Rome. Although the tiara was omitted in the pope’s personal coat of arms, the coat of arms of the Holy See, which includes the tiara, remained unaltered. In 2013, Pope Francis maintained the mitre that replaced the tiara, but omitted the pallium.

The flag most frequently associated with the pope is the yellow and white flag of Vatican City, with the arms of the Holy See (blazoned: “Gules, two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or”) on the right-hand side (the “fly”) in the white half of the flag (the left-hand side—the “hoist”—is yellow). The pope’s escucheon does not appear on the flag. This flag was first adopted in 1808, whereas the previous flag had been red and gold. Although Pope Benedict XVI replaced the triregnum with a mitre on his personal coat of arms, it has been retained on the flag.

Papal garments

Pope Pius V (reigned 1566–1572), is often credited with having originated the custom whereby the pope wears white, by continuing after his election to wear the white habit of the Dominican order. In reality, the basic papal attire was white long before. The earliest document that describes it as such is the Ordo XIII, a book of ceremonies compiled in about 1274. Later books of ceremonies describe the pope as wearing a red mantle, mozzetta, camauro and shoes, and a white cassock and stockings. Many contemporary portraits of 15th and 16th-century predecessors of Pius V show them wearing a white cassock similar to his.

Status and authority

First Vatican Council

The status and authority of the pope in the Catholic Church was dogmatically defined by the First Vatican Council on 18 July 1870. In its Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ, the council established the following canons:

If anyone says that the blessed Apostle Peter was not established by the Lord Christ as the chief of all the apostles, and the visible head of the whole militant Church, or, that the same received great honour but did not receive from the same our Lord Jesus Christ directly and immediately the primacy in true and proper jurisdiction: let him be anathema.

If anyone says that it is not from the institution of Christ the Lord Himself, or by divine right that the blessed Peter has perpetual successors in the primacy over the universal Church, or that the Roman Pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in the same primacy, let him be anathema.

If anyone thus speaks, that the Roman pontiff has only the office of inspection or direction, but not the full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the universal Church, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in those which pertain to the discipline and government of the Church spread over the whole world; or, that he possesses only the more important parts, but not the whole plenitude of this supreme power; or that this power of his is not ordinary and immediate, or over the churches altogether and individually, and over the pastors and the faithful altogether and individually: let him be anathema.

We, adhering faithfully to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God, our Saviour, the elevation of the Catholic religion and the salvation of Christian peoples, with the approbation of the sacred Council, teach and explain that the dogma has been divinely revealed: that the Roman Pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when carrying out the duty of the pastor and teacher of all Christians by his supreme apostolic authority he defines a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, through the divine assistance promised him in blessed Peter, operates with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer wished that His church be instructed in defining doctrine on faith and morals; and so such definitions of the Roman Pontiff from himself, but not from the consensus of the Church, are unalterable. But if anyone presumes to contradict this definition of Ours, which may God forbid: let him be anathema.

On 11 October 2012, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council 60 prominent theologians, (including Hans Küng), put out a Declaration, stating that the intention of Vatican II to balance authority in the Church has not been realized. “Many of the key insights of Vatican II have not at all, or only partially, been implemented… A principal source of present-day stagnation lies in misunderstanding and abuse affecting the exercise of authority in our Church.”

Politics and functions of the Holy See

Residence and jurisdiction

The pope’s official seat is in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, considered the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, and his official residence is the Apostolic Palace. He also possesses a summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, situated on the site of the ancient city of Alba Longa.

The names “Holy See” and “Apostolic See” are ecclesiastical terminology for the ordinary jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, including the Roman Curia. The pope’s honours, powers, and privileges within the Catholic Church and the international community derive from his Episcopate of Rome in lineal succession from the Saint Peter, one of the twelve apostles.

Consequently, Rome has traditionally occupied a central position in the Catholic Church, although this is not necessarily so. The pope derives his pontificate from being the bishop of Rome but is not required to live there. According to the Latin formula ubi Papa, ibi Curia, wherever the pope resides is the central government of the Church. Between 1309 and 1378, the popes lived in Avignon, France, a period often called the “Babylonian captivity” in allusion to the Biblical narrative of Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah living as captives in Babylonia.

Pastoral care of the Diocese of Rome

Although the pope is the diocesan bishop of Rome, he delegates most of the day-to-day work of leading the diocese to the cardinal vicar, who assures direct episcopal oversight of the diocese’s pastoral needs, not in his own name but in that of the pope. The most recent cardinal vicar was Angelo De Donatis, who served from 2017 until 2024. The current cardinal vicar is Baldassare Reina.

This does not mean that popes ignore their diocesan responsibilities. For example, when Pope John XXIII announced his intention to establish the Second Vatican Council in 1959, his reflections dealt first with the state of the Catholic Church within Rome before “broadening his gaze to the entire world”.

Political role

Though the progressive Christianization of the Roman Empire in the 4th century did not confer upon bishops civil authority within the state, the gradual withdrawal of imperial authority during the 5th century left the pope the senior imperial civilian official in Rome, as bishops were increasingly directing civil affairs in other cities of the Western Empire. This status as a secular and civil ruler was vividly displayed by Pope Leo I’s confrontation with Attila in 452.

The first expansion of papal rule outside of Rome came in 728 with the Donation of Sutri. In 754, the Frankish ruler Pippin the Younger gave the pope the land from his conquest of the Lombards. The pope may have utilized the forged Donation of Constantine to gain this land, which formed the core of the Papal States. This document, accepted as genuine until the 15th century, states that Constantine the Great placed the entire Western Empire of Rome under papal rule.

In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish ruler Charlemagne as Roman emperor, a major step toward establishing what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. From that date onward the popes claimed the prerogative to crown the emperor. The right fell into disuse after the coronation of Charles V in 1530. In 1804, Pius VII was present at the coronation of Napoleon I but did not actually perform the crowning. As mentioned above, the pope’s sovereignty over the Papal States ended in 1870 with their annexation by Italy.

Popes like Alexander VI, an ambitious if spectacularly corrupt politician, and Julius II, a formidable general and statesman, were not afraid to use power to achieve their own ends, which included increasing the power of the papacy. This political and temporal authority was demonstrated through the papal role in the Holy Roman Empire, especially prominent during periods of contention with the emperors, such as during the pontificates of Pope Gregory VII and Pope Alexander III.

Papal bulls, interdict, and excommunication, or the threat thereof, have been used many times to exercise papal power. The bull Laudabiliter in 1155 authorized King Henry II of England to invade Ireland. In 1207, Innocent III placed England under interdict until King John made his kingdom a fiefdom to the pope, complete with yearly tribute, saying, “we offer and freely yield…to our lord Pope Innocent III and his catholic successors, the whole kingdom of England and the whole kingdom of Ireland with all their rights and appurtenences for the remission of our sins”.

The Bull Inter caetera in 1493 led to the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world into areas of Spanish and Portuguese rule. The bull Regnans in Excelsis in 1570 excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England and declared that all her subjects were released from allegiance to her. The bull Inter gravissimas in 1582 established the Gregorian calendar.

In recent decades, although the papacy has become less directly involved in politics, popes have nevertheless retained significant political influence. They have also served as mediators, with the support of the Catholic establishment. John Paul II, a native of Poland, was regarded as influential in the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. He also mediated the Beagle conflict between Argentina and Chile, two predominantly Catholic countries. In the 21st century, Francis played a role in brokering the 2015 improvement in relations between the United States and Cuba.

International position

Under international law, a serving head of state has sovereign immunity from the jurisdiction of the courts of other countries, though not from that of international tribunals. This immunity is sometimes loosely referred to as “diplomatic immunity“, which is, strictly speaking, the immunity enjoyed by the diplomatic representatives of a head of state. International law treats the Holy See, essentially the central government of the Catholic Church, as the juridical equal of a state. It is distinct from the state of Vatican City, existing for many centuries before the foundation of the latter.

It is common for publications and news media to use “the Vatican”, “Vatican City”, and even “Rome” as metonyms for the Holy See. Most countries of the world maintain the same form of diplomatic relations with the Holy See that they entertain with other states. Even countries without those diplomatic relations participate in international organizations of which the Holy See is a full member.

It is as head of the state-equivalent worldwide religious jurisdiction of the Holy See (not of the territory of Vatican City) that the U.S. Justice Department ruled that the pope enjoys head-of-state immunity. This head-of-state immunity, recognized by the United States, must be distinguished from that envisaged under the United States’ Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, which, while recognizing the basic immunity of foreign governments from being sued in American courts, lays down nine exceptions, including commercial activity and actions in the United States by agents or employees of the foreign governments. It was in relation to the latter that, in November 2008, the United States Court of Appeals in Cincinnati decided that a case over sexual abuse by Catholic priests could proceed, provided the plaintiffs could prove that the bishops accused of negligent supervision were acting as employees or agents of the Holy See and were following official Holy See policy.^[

In April 2010, there was press coverage in Britain concerning a proposed plan by atheist campaigners and a prominent barrister, Geoffrey Robertson, to have Pope Benedict XVI arrested and prosecuted in the UK for alleged offences, dating from several decades before, in failing to take appropriate action regarding Catholic sex abuse cases and concerning their disputing his immunity from prosecution in that country. This was generally dismissed as “unrealistic and spurious”. Another barrister said that it was a “matter of embarrassment that a senior British lawyer would want to allow himself to be associated with such a silly idea” Sovereign immunity does not apply to disputes relating to commercial transactions, and governmental units of the Holy See can face trial in foreign commercial courts. The first such trial to take place in the English courts is likely to occur in 2022 or 2023.

Objections to the papacy

The pope’s claim to authority is either disputed or rejected outright by other churches, for various reasons.

Orthodox, Anglican and Old Catholic churches

Other traditional Christian churches (Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Old Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Independent Catholic churches, etc.) accept the doctrine of Apostolic succession and, to varying extents, papal claims to a primacy of honour, while generally rejecting the pope as the successor to Peter in any other sense than that of other bishops. Primacy is regarded as a consequence of the pope’s position as bishop of the original capital city of the Roman Empire, a definition spelled out in the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon. These churches see no foundation to papal claims of universal immediate jurisdiction, or to claims of papal infallibility. Several of these churches refer to such claims as ultramontanism.

Protestant denominations

In 1973, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and the USA National Committee of the Lutheran World Federation in the official Catholic–Lutheran dialogue included this passage in a larger statement on papal primacy:

Protestant denominations of Christianity reject the claims of Petrine primacy of honor, Petrine primacy of jurisdiction, and papal infallibility. These denominations vary from rejecting the legitimacy of the pope’s claim to authority, to believing that the pope is the Antichrist from 1 John 2:18, the Man of Sin from 2 Thessalonians 2:3–12, and the Beast out of the Earth from Revelation 13:11–18.

This sweeping rejection is held by, among others, some denominations of Lutherans: Confessional Lutherans hold that the pope is the Antichrist, stating that this article of faith is part of a quia (“because”) rather than quatenus (“insofar as”) subscription to the Book of Concord. In 1932, one of these Confessional churches, the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), adopted A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod, which a small number of Lutheran church bodies now hold. The Lutheran Churches of the Reformation, the Concordia Lutheran Conference the Church of the Lutheran Confession, and the Illinois Lutheran Conference all hold to the Brief Statement, which the LCMS places on its website. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), another Confessional Lutheran church that declares the Papacy to be the Antichrist, released its own statement, the “Statement on the Antichrist”, in 1959. The WELS still holds to this statement.

Historically, Protestants objected to the papacy’s claim of temporal power over all secular governments, including territorial claims in Italy, the papacy’s complex relationship with secular states such as the Roman and Byzantine empires, and the autocratic character of the papal office. In Western Christianity these objections both contributed to and are products of the Protestant Reformation.

Antipopes

Groups sometimes form around antipopes, who claim the Pontificate without being canonically and properly elected to it. Traditionally, this term was reserved for claimants with a significant following of cardinals or other clergy. The existence of an antipope is usually due either to doctrinal controversy within the Church (heresy) or to confusion as to who is the legitimate pope at the time (schism). Briefly in the 15th century, three separate lines of popes claimed authenticity.

Other uses of the title “Pope”

In the earlier centuries of Christianity, the title “Pope”, meaning “father”, had been used by all bishops. Some popes used the term and others did not. Eventually, the title became associated especially with the bishop of Rome. In a few cases, the term is used for other Christian clerical authorities. In English, Catholic priests are still addressed as “father”, but the term “pope” is reserved for the head of the church hierarchy.

In the Catholic Church

“Black Pope” is a name that was popularly, but unofficially, given to the superior general of the Society of Jesus due to the Jesuits‘ importance within the Church. This name, based on the black colour of his cassock, was used to suggest a parallel between him and the “White Pope” (since the time of Pius V the popes dress in white) and the cardinal prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (formerly called the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), whose red cardinal’s cassock gave him the name of the “Red Pope” in view of the authority over all territories that were not considered in some way Catholic. In the present time this cardinal has power over mission territories for Catholicism, essentially the Churches of Africa and Asia, but in the past his competence extended also to all lands where Protestants or Eastern Christianity was dominant. Some remnants of this situation remain, with the result that, for instance, New Zealand is still in the care of this Congregation.

In the Eastern Churches

Since the papacy of Heraclas in the 3rd century, the bishop of Alexandria in both the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria continues to be called “pope”, the former being called “Coptic pope” or, more properly, “Pope and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy Orthodox and Apostolic Throne of Saint Mark the Evangelist and Holy Apostle” and the latter called “Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa“.

In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox Church and Macedonian Orthodox Church, it is not unusual for a village priest to be called a “pope” (“поп” pop). This is different from the words used for the head of the Catholic Church (Bulgarian “папа” papa, Russian “папа римский” papa rimskiy).

In new religious movements and other Christian-related new religious movements

Some new religious movements within Christianity, especially those that have disassociated themselves from the Catholic Church yet retain a Catholic hierarchical framework, have used the designation “pope” for a founder or current leader. Examples include the African Legio Maria Church and the European Palmarian Catholic Church in Spain. The Cao Dai, a Vietnamese faith that duplicates the Catholic hierarchy, is similarly headed by a pope.

Lengths of papal reign

Longest-reigning popes

Published every year by the Roman Curia, the Annuario Pontificio attaches no consecutive numbers to the popes, stating that it is impossible to decide which side represented at various times the legitimate succession, in particular regarding Pope Leo VIII, Pope Benedict V and some mid-11th-century popes.

10 Things You May Not Know About the Vatican

By Christopher Klein

1. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. Encircled by a 2-mile border with Italy, Vatican City is an independent city-state that covers just over 100 acres, making it one-eighth the size of New York’s Central Park. Vatican City is governed as an absolute monarchy with the pope at its head. The Vatican mints its own euros, prints its own stamps, issues passports and license plates, operates media outlets and has its own flag and anthem. One government function it lacks: taxation. Museum admission fees, stamp and souvenir sales, and contributions generate the Vatican’s revenue.

2. St. Peter’s Basilica sits atop a city of the dead, including its namesake’s tomb. A Roman necropolis stood on Vatican Hill in pagan times. When a great fire leveled much of Rome in A.D. 64, Emperor Nero, seeking to shift blame from himself, accused the Christians of starting the blaze. He executed them by burning them at the stake, tearing them apart with wild beasts and crucifying them. Among those crucified was St. Peter—disciple of Jesus Christ, leader of the Apostles and the first bishop of Rome—who was supposedly buried in a shallow grave on Vatican Hill. By the fourth century and official recognition of the Christian religion in Rome, Emperor Constantine began construction of the original basilica atop the ancient burial ground with what was believed to be the tomb of St. Peter at its center. The present basilica, built starting in the 1500s, sits over a maze of catacombs and St. Peter’s suspected grave.

3. Caligula captured the obelisk that stands in St. Peter’s Square. Roman Emperor Caligula built a small circus in his mother’s gardens at the base of Vatican Hill where charioteers trained and where Nero is thought to have martyred the Christians. To crown the center of the amphitheater, Caligula had his forces transport from Egypt a pylon that had originally stood in Heliopolis. The obelisk, made of a single piece of red granite weighing more than 350 tons, was erected for an Egyptian pharaoh more than 3,000 years ago. In 1586 it was moved to its present location in St. Peter’s Square, where it does double duty as a giant sundial.

4. For nearly 60 years in the 1800s and 1900s, popes refused to leave the Vatican. Popes ruled over a collection of sovereign Papal States throughout central Italy until the country was unified in 1870. The new secular government had seized all the land of the Papal States with the exception of the small patch of the Vatican, and a cold war of sorts then broke out between the church and the Italian government. Popes refused to recognize the authority of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Vatican remained beyond Italian national control. Pope Pius IX proclaimed himself a “prisoner of the Vatican,” and for almost 60 years popes refused to leave the Vatican and submit to the authority of the Italian government. When Italian troops were present in St. Peter’s Square, popes even refused to give blessings or appear from the balcony overlooking the public space.

5. Benito Mussolini signed Vatican City into existence. The dispute between the Italian government and the Catholic Church ended in 1929 with the signing of the Lateran Pacts, which allowed the Vatican to exist as its own sovereign state and compensated the church $92 million (more than $1 billion in today’s money) for the Papal States. The Vatican used the payment as seed money to re-grow its coffers. Mussolini, the head of the Italian government, signed the treaty on behalf of King Victor Emmanuel III.

6. Popes did not live at the Vatican until the 14th century. Even after the construction of the original St. Peter’s Basilica, popes lived principally at the Lateran Palace across Rome. They even left the city altogether in 1309 when the papal court moved to Avignon, France, after King Philip IV arranged for a French cardinal to be elected pope. Seven popes, all French, ruled from Avignon, and the papacy did not return to Rome until 1377, by which time the Lateran Palace had burned and the Vatican started to be used as a papal residence. Much repair work needed to be done, however, because the Vatican had fallen into such disrepair that wolves dug for bodies in the cemetery and cows even wandered the basilica.

7. The Swiss Guard was hired as a mercenary force. The Swiss Guard, recognizable by its armor and colorful Renaissance-era uniforms, has been protecting the pontiff since 1506. That’s when Pope Julius II, following in the footsteps of many European courts of the time, hired one of the Swiss mercenary forces for his personal protection. The Swiss Guard’s role in Vatican City is strictly to protect the safety of the pope. Although the world’s smallest standing army appears to be strictly ceremonial, its soldiers are extensively trained and highly skilled marksmen. And, yes, the force is entirely comprised of Swiss citizens.

8. At several times during the Vatican’s history, popes escaped through a secret passageway. In 1277, a half-mile-long elevated covered passageway, the Passetto di Borgo, was constructed to link the Vatican with the fortified Castel Sant’Angelo on the banks of the Tiber River. It served as an escape route for popes, most notably in 1527 when it likely saved the life of Pope Clement VII during the sack of Rome. As the forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V rampaged through the city and murdered priests and nuns, the Swiss Guard held back the enemy long enough to allow Clement to safely reach the Castel Sant’Angelo, although 147 of the pope’s forces lost their lives in the battle.

9. The majority of Vatican City’s 600 citizens live abroad. As of 2011, the number of people with Vatican citizenship totaled 594. That number included 71 cardinals, 109 members of the Swiss Guard, 51 members of the clergy and one nun inside the Vatican walls. The largest group of citizens, however, was the 307 members of the clergy in diplomatic positions around the world. With Benedict XVI residing as a pope emeritus in the Vatican, the population will increase by one when a new pope is named.

10. The Vatican Observatory owns a telescope in Arizona. As Rome expanded, light pollution from the city made it increasingly difficult for astronomers at the Vatican Observatory—located 15 miles from the city at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo—to view the night skies, so in 1981 the observatory opened a second research center in Tucson, Arizona. The Vatican conducts astronomical research with a state-of-the-art telescope that sits atop Mount Graham in southeast Arizona.