The Swiss Guard’s Fan Girl
One of my guilty pleasures is the Vatican Swiss Guard. Total Fan Girl! I know all about them. I have bought and sold mementoes of them online for years. It’s a real a cottage industry. Vintage postcards, cookbooks, “official” tee shirts, dolls, a Hard Rock Café lapel pin… I actually have a fairly large and discriminating collection if I must say so myself! The Swiss Guard is beloved by visitors to the Vatican. There are probably a million Swiss Guard photos in this world. Most with a tourist standing somewhere within eyeshot of a Guard to prove they were there. Big grin of the tourist in contrast to the serious face of the Guard. One of the tourist highlights of my life was when I attended the Five Hundredth Anniversary of the Swiss Guard in Rome.
The Swiss Guard’s job is to protect the Pope. In today’s world that is no small job. It’s important and critical. Yes, they perform ceremonial duties and assist at Vatican functions. But their main job is to protect the Holy Father. Just how serious this responsibility is was driven home to me when I was invited to morning Mass with Pope John Paul II. At the crack of dawn, I showed my passport and was admitted. I was excited and ran up the first flight of steps to the Pope’s apartment. I remember two large flights. When I got to the landing between the flights, there was a very senior Swiss Guard in full, colorful uniform standing and talking to a man in a black suit. The Guard had his hand on his hip so that his navy-blue cape was pushed back over his hip. That revealed a very deadly looking gun tucked into his belt. I stopped in my tracks and just stared at the gun.
When the Guard noticed me standing there gawking at the gun, he didn’t miss a beat of his conversation as he very slowly moved his arm and let his cape fall down and cover the gun again. I took off like a shot. Passed the men, up the stairs I ran and never looked back. Never forgot either. One thing for sure, these guys are not for appearances only. I think Catholics all over the world owe them a great deal for their service.
It’s not easy to become a Swiss Guard. The no brainer part is to be Swiss. But you must also, be a man (only), Roman Catholic, between the ages of nineteen and thirty, unmarried, five foot nine and taller, and trained by the Swiss Army itself. But the most predominant requirement is that you are a man who would give his life for the Pope. That’s the job definition. They take an oath to this.
In 2021 a unique situation came up when four guards refused to be vaccinated. They were immediately dismissed from the Guard. And they should have been. Here it’s a not a question of personal rights. They took an oath to protect the Pope and vaccination is consistent if not necessary with this. I care for my ninety-six year old mother. I am concerned every day with keeping her safe. The vaccination was never doubted. My mother has ten years on the Pope but he is a golden oldie too. He needs to be protected from the virus as much as from a terrorist.
I always thought of canon 1370 as the “Don’t Smack the Pope Canon”. Physically assault him in any way and you are excommunicated. Automatically. No one else is covered by this canon, just the Pope. Next to excommunication, dismissal from the Guard is a day at the beach. They got off easy. Their refusal could be as deadly as striking the Pope. Refusing to be vaccinated wasn’t just a violation of mandates, rules and science; it showed a callous disregard for the man they pledged to give their life for. A shot in the arm, is a lot less drastic than death.