Two things: maybe it’s time to consider opening up the Guard to international candidates, per the model of the French Foreign Legion.
Second: I hope these guys are seriously prepared and heavily armed. I’ve always perceived the Vatican as a soft target, which a small group of jihadis could breach and cause major havoc before being neutralized. I hope the Guard is well prepared for such a small, heavily armed assault force striking through a less-prominent entry point than the four major ones. I imagine the Guard has such a counter strike force always at the ready, and hope they’re not relying on the Italian authorities to bail them out of any serious trouble.
I had the beginning of a novel in which after a highly successful terrorist attack on Vatican City, Switzerland refuses to allow citizens to serve “foreign powers” without losing citizenship. The result is the creation of a new corps comprised of former Swiss Guards and retired Marines, Rangers, SEALs, perhaps SAS, etc.
by no means limited to the weaponry visible in this particular video.
And notice also that while they do say that the Guard is the smallest army in the world, they don’t specify actual numbers. They take security seriously, they are not merely ceremonial.
the commands are given in German. I have been told that Paul VI dismantelled all the Guardia nobile and the Guardia palatina but not the Swiss guard because the last one was the only one really thrustworthy. He noticed the behaviour of the three guards during WWII as he worked at the Segreteria di Stato and at the end only one survived in 1970.
Acriter et fideliter (since A. D. 1506)
The beginning of Virgil’s Aeneid might be in order, though the “coasts of Geneva” rather than “Troy.”
Arma virumque cano…
desertcatholic: YouTube video info says the first piece of music is Mission Discovery by Terry Devine-King.
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ThePapalCount on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “Fr Z I agree with MaternalView above. The world situation is shaky and a trip to Poland… next to Ukraine…”
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maternalView on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “Perhaps world events are making some nervous international travelers. Personally, I would have loved to go to Poland on a…”
voxborealis on ROME 24/4– Day 28: bad news and good news: “The bit about Claudius thinking that a return to the republic was likely or even possible may take its inspiration…”
Everyone, work to get this into your parish bulletins and diocesan papers.
The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds.
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“Until the Lord be pleased to settle, through the instrumentality of the princes of the Church and the lawful ministers of His justice, the trouble aroused by the pride of a few and the ignorance of some others, let us with the help of God endeavor with calm and humble patience to render love for hatred, to avoid disputes with the silly, to keep to the truth and not fight with the weapons of falsehood, and to beg of God at all times that in all our thoughts and desires, in all our words and actions, He may hold the first place who calls Himself the origin of all things.”
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“He [Satan] will set up a counter-Church which will be the ape of the Church because, he the devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the anti-Christ that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ. In desperate need for God, whom he nevertheless refuses to adore, modern man in his loneliness and frustration will hunger more and more for membership in a community that will give him enlargement of purpose, but at the cost of losing himself in some vague collectivity.”
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"But if, in any layman who is indeed imbued with literature, ignorance of the Latin language, which we can truly call the 'catholic' language, indicates a certain sluggishness in his love toward the Church, how much more fitting it is that each and every cleric should be adequately practiced and skilled in that language!" - Pius XI
"Let us realize that this remark of Cicero (Brutus 37, 140) can be in a certain way referred to [young lay people]: 'It is not so much a matter of distinction to know Latin as it is disgraceful not to know it.'" - St. John Paul II
Grant unto thy Church, we beseech Thee, O merciful God, that She, being gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may be in no wise troubled by attack from her foes. O God, who by sin art offended and by penance pacified, mercifully regard the prayers of Thy people making supplication unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of Thine anger which we deserve for our sins. Almighty and Everlasting God, in whose Hand are the power and the government of every realm: look down upon and help the Christian people that the heathen nations who trust in the fierceness of their own might may be crushed by the power of thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.
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When I was a boy, I always wanted to be a Swiss Guard. Then I learned one had to actually be a Swiss. Sniff…
Perfect marching steps, wow. The shot from above is great.
Number three in the series will be out in March, stay tuned.
That is a great recruiting advertisement! Wish I were young, Swiss … spoke German … unmarried …. and was at least 175cm tall!
–Guy
Thanks, Father!
Two things: maybe it’s time to consider opening up the Guard to international candidates, per the model of the French Foreign Legion.
Second: I hope these guys are seriously prepared and heavily armed. I’ve always perceived the Vatican as a soft target, which a small group of jihadis could breach and cause major havoc before being neutralized. I hope the Guard is well prepared for such a small, heavily armed assault force striking through a less-prominent entry point than the four major ones. I imagine the Guard has such a counter strike force always at the ready, and hope they’re not relying on the Italian authorities to bail them out of any serious trouble.
I had the beginning of a novel in which after a highly successful terrorist attack on Vatican City, Switzerland refuses to allow citizens to serve “foreign powers” without losing citizenship. The result is the creation of a new corps comprised of former Swiss Guards and retired Marines, Rangers, SEALs, perhaps SAS, etc.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard is by no means limited to the weaponry visible in this particular video.
by no means limited to the weaponry visible in this particular video.
And notice also that while they do say that the Guard is the smallest army in the world, they don’t specify actual numbers. They take security seriously, they are not merely ceremonial.
I wonder in what language are the commands given?
Beautifully filmed. Can anyone identify the music?
the commands are given in German. I have been told that Paul VI dismantelled all the Guardia nobile and the Guardia palatina but not the Swiss guard because the last one was the only one really thrustworthy. He noticed the behaviour of the three guards during WWII as he worked at the Segreteria di Stato and at the end only one survived in 1970.
Acriter et fideliter (since A. D. 1506)
Way too cool.
The beginning of Virgil’s Aeneid might be in order, though the “coasts of Geneva” rather than “Troy.”
Arma virumque cano…
desertcatholic: YouTube video info says the first piece of music is Mission Discovery by Terry Devine-King.