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Vatican City may have fewer than 1,000 citizens and span only 110 acres, but it also has a multimillion-dollar budget and an unbelievably complex history. Understanding how it all works requires parsing through centuries of religious texts. Is the Vatican confusing and mysterious? Is the Pope Catholic? Here’s a look behind the scenes.
1. Regular Exorcise!
Baudelaire once said that “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” But in modern-day Vatican City, the devil is considered alive and well. The former Pope John Paul II personally performed three exorcisms during his reign, and the current Pope Benedict XVI is expanding the ranks of Catholic-sponsored exorcists throughout the world. In fact, Father Gabriele Amorth, the Church’s chief exorcist, claims to expel more than 300 demons a year from the confines of his Vatican office, and there are more than 350 exorcists operating on behalf of the Catholic Church in Italy alone. Amorth also teaches bishops how to tell the difference between satanic possession and psychiatric illness, noting that those who suffer from the former seem to be particularly repulsed by the sight of holy water and the cross.
2. Where Thieves Go to Prey
With 1.5 crimes per citizen, Vatican City has the highest crime rate in the world. It’s not that the cardinals are donning masks and repeatedly robbing the bank, it’s just that the massive crowds of tourists make Vatican City a pickpocket’s paradise. The situation is complicated by the fact that the Vatican has no working prison and only one judge. So most criminals are simply marched across the border into Italy, as part of a pact between the two countries. (The Vatican’s legal code is based on Italy’s, with some modifications regarding abortion and divorce.) Crimes that the Vatican sees fit to try itself—mainly shoplifting in its duty-free stores—are usually punished by temporarily revoking the troublemaker’s access to those areas. But not every crime involves theft. In 2007, the Vatican issued its first drug conviction after an employee was found with a few ounces of cocaine in his desk.
3. The Worst Confessions
Some sins are simply too much for a local bishop to forgive. While priests can absolve a sin as serious as murder (according to the Church), there are five specific sins that require absolution from the Apostolic Penitentiary. This secretive tribunal has met off and on for the past 830 years, but in January of 2009, for the first time ever, its members held a press conference to discuss their work.
Three of the five sins they contemplate can only be committed by the clergy. If you’re a priest who breaks the seal of confession, a priest who offers confession to his own sexual partners, or a man who has directly participated in an abortion and wants to become a priest, then your case must go before the tribunal to receive absolution. The other two sins can be committed by anyone. The first, desecrating the Eucharist, is particularly bad because Catholics believe that the bread and wine transubstantiate into the body and blood of Christ. Messing with them is like messing with Jesus. And then, there’s the sin of attempting to assassinate the Pope. That one’s pretty self-explanatory.
The meetings of the Apostolic Penitentiary are kept confidential because they’re a different form of confession. The sinner is referred to by a pseudonym, and only the Major Penitentiary, Cardinal James Francis Stafford, decides how the sin shall be dealt with. Presumably, a bunch of Hail Marys doesn’t cut it.
4. Read the Pope’s Mail
more …
An apartment in Rome that measures 55 square feet may be the smallest in the world. And it could be yours for about $68,000.
The flat consists of a ground floor bathroom with a shower, sink and lavatory and a ladder leading to a sleeping platform just big enough for a single bed. There is a single window, but to open it you have to climb over the bed.
Link via Althouse | Photo: CEN
Previously: The Smallest Apartment in New York City
Back in 1st century A.D. (or C.E., if it pleases you), the Romans were really starting to crank things up. Things like debauchery, poisoning of rivals, fratricide…basically setting the stage for their own eventual downfall.
Of the many Emperors who ruled over this lifestyle, Nero stands out as one of the nastiest. But you gotta give the guy points for trying to throw a serious bash. At the time of his rule, a Roman historian named Suetonius chronicled everything, including the construction of a dining room that rotated.
Now, archeologists think they may have finally discovered this room, which was filled in and built-over in 80A.D.
Quite how the rotating dining room worked is still a bit of a mystery; some think it was by the motion of canals under the room and others think it more likely that it was manually cranked by slaves but hopefully the new funding will enable the archaeologists to confirm one way or the other.
In addition to the rotating floor, the opulent room featured fretted ivory ceilings which would pour flower petals and perfume down on Nero’s guests. Jackie118 has more fascinating history of Nero’s Rome at the link!
Link | Image: Daily Mail
The month of January, named for the two-headed Roman god Janus, originally appeared towards the end of the calendar year, along with the equally dark and boing February, the last month of the year.
Then power brokers in Rome decided it would be more politically advantageous to inaugurate their new consuls in January, two months before the country typically went off to wage war in March, named for the Mars, the god of war. The rest is history.
