10.
The Roman Curia The Roman Curia isn’t exactly a secret,
but it’s certainly not something the Vatican advertises openly.
In fact, most people don't even know the Roman Curia exists.
Some call them the Curia Romanae, some simply say The Curia.
But whatever name you like the most, they’re still the cabinet that looks over all the
official business in the Vatican.
They are, in essence, the Vatican’s government.
If the Pope is the president, the Roman Curia is the senate.
There are nine main departments known as congregations, the oldest of which was founded in 1542.
It's called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it was originally the Office
of the Inquisition.
Almost 500 years later, their mission remains exactly the same.
They are charged with safeguarding the religious doctrine and maintaining the orthodoxy of
the church.
Each department handles something very specific.
Some oversee liturgy, some are responsible for the canonization of saints, and some choose
the new bishops.
But the Roman Curia is much deeper than just a couple of different congregations.
There are also tribunals, like the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, responsible
for the forgiveness of sin.
And finally, there are many offices and three secretariats for promoting Christian unity,
for non-Christians, and for non-believers.
Several enduring directives reflect papal direction for scholarly studies.
They include the Pontifical Commission for Biblical Studies and the Pontifical Commission
for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law.
The Vatican may look like a simple organization of the top Catholic brass, but the entire
structure is a very real government, one which pulls a lot of unseen strings in the world.
9.
The King Pope The Pope isn't merely a man who occasionally
says things out of a very tall window, he's actually the king of his own country.
He's the leader of the smallest nation in the world, the head of government, and the
supreme leader, the all-powerful monarch of Vatican City.
This is something not many people know, that Vatican City is itself, by definition, an
independent country.
One reason the Vatican doesn't keep the public educated on its official origins is that they're
kind of uncertain.
Back in 1929, the Vatican made a deal with the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
This was the tyrant who went to war against the world on Hitler’s side, trying to recreate
the Roman Empire.
Until 1871, Italy was divided into a bunch of different states.
One of them was the Papal lands, covering a massive third of Italy, and it was ruled
by the Pope.
When Italy finally became a country, the Pope lost a huge amount of territory and his power
started to dwindle.
This obviously didn't sit well with the rulers of the Vatican, as they had been enjoying
pretty much unquestionable power for centuries.
On February 11, 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed by Mussolini and Pope Pius XI.
The treaty was a kind of mutually beneficial deal for the two parties.
The Vatican would stay out of the political decisions of Italy and Italy would have absolutely
no power over the Vatican because it would finally be an independent country.
This worked out well for Mussolini when Italy went to war with the fascists and the pope
had to stay silent about the politics of the war, otherwise, he could lose control of his
fine kingdom.
Much of Vatican City is concealed by walls and difficult to enter as a non-citizen or
invited guest.
If you manage to step onto St. Peter’s Square, you will be in the smallest country in the
world.
To really get inside the Vatican borders, and visit the Vatican Museums, you won’t
have to deal with immigration officers, but you will have to go through tight security.
8.
The Vatican Economy Nobody knows exactly how much money the Vatican
has, but we know that it's a lot.
The smallest country in the world has one of the largest impacts on the global financial
system out of any other governing body.
Investments, private enterprises, banking deals, real estate, and so much more.
The economy of the Vatican is wildly complicated and hugely secret.
It also has a lot to do with the Pope himself, or the Holy See.
Seeing as he is the ruler of Vatican City, he’s the one who technically controls all
their money.
The church’s revenue is generated from something called Peter’s Pence, which was a term that
came around in the 8th century.
From individual people and churches all across the globe, the Holy See collects its cash
through donations.
Every time someone puts a bit of money in a donation box, that money goes directly under
the Pope’s control.
The Pope then takes this money that's been donated to the church and delegates it to
be invested.
The investment portfolio is spread between stocks and bonds.
Western European currencies and real estate are also held within the portfolio.
The church is even active in the New York Stock exchange.
There are some investment opportunities that the Holy See won’t make.
For example, it will not make investments in businesses that go against church values,
such as pharmaceutical companies that manufacture birth control.
In this regard, the Holy See's investment strategy is similar to those that employ a
faith-based investing policy.
7.
Treasure in the Dungeon According to some experts in ancient history,
biblical treasures stolen from Jerusalem’s Second Temple by the Romans in the year 70
could be hidden underneath the Vatican to this very day.
These mysterious treasures could be held in a secret vault inside the Vatican dungeons,
away from prying eyes and kept totally secret.
We already know the Vatican is home to one of the most spectacular collections of historical
texts anywhere in the world.
There are over 35,000 volumes of mysterious information spread across 53 miles (85km)
of shelves inside their secret archives.
But according to Tom Meyer, a biblical studies professor from California, there could be
actual treasure stashed away underneath the Vatican, not just paper and secrets.
This treasure was pillaged from Judea after the Roman emperor Titus slaughtered roughly
one million Jewish people.
The Romans torched the great religious buildings in Jerusalem and stole all the artifacts.
And while we don't know for sure, it makes sense that those artifacts could have, over
time, found their way into the powerful hands of the Vatican.
And if so, they certainly might have been stashed underground in a hidden vault, a place
that’s legitimately secret, somewhere you won’t typically hear about in an internet
video!
6.
The Vatican Murders On May 4, 1998, Alois Estermann and his wife,
Gladys Meza Romero, were killed in their apartment where they lived in Vatican City.
Alois had been the newly commissioned commander of the famous Swiss Guard, appointed to his
position just a few hours before his death.
He was killed by a gunshot wound to the face.
As for his wife, a native of Venezuela, she was killed by a bullet through her chest.
But these weren't the only bodies discovered in the apartment.
There was also the alleged perpetrator, a guardsman by the name of Cedric Tornay, who
had died from a gunshot wound to the head.
The day after the incident, the supreme seller of Vatican truths came before the media and
told them what happened.
They said that an internal investigation revealed Cedric Tornay had been upset with Alois Estermann.
Alois was his superior, and he had disciplined him for leaving Vatican City one night without
permission.
Because of this disciplinary action, Cedric was not awarded a medal of merit.
Angry about the entire ordeal, he killed Alois and his wife, then turned the gun on himself.
But this is just what the Vatican says.
The truth is that they never brought in the Italian law enforcement.
They also didn't wait for forensic results or an autopsy.
It was almost as if they had already come up with a story to tell the news beforehand.
Investigations, later on, proved that Alois Estermann had some pretty deep connections
in the Vatican, and it was rumored there were some who didn't want him climbing any higher
up the ladder.
Whatever the case, this murder mystery was technically solved by the Vatican less than
24 hours after it happened.
It’s just that over 20 years later, few people believe the official story.
What do you think happened in that apartment?
Let me know in the comments.
Remember to hit the subscribe button before the end of the video.
5.
Blessed are the Poor Peter’s Pence is the tradition from the
8th century when all Catholics are instructed to donate to the church.
Often, the donations are advertised as going towards something charitable.
It’s like when a fast-food joint asks you to donate $1.00 to some children’s charity.
But that gut instinct telling you the money isn’t going where they’re saying may not
be wrong.
In 2019, journalists broke the case of the Vatican misappropriating funds wide open.
A Wall Street Journal investigation found out that as little as 10% of donations that
are specifically advertised as going towards charitable work reach those in need.
The other 90% of the cash goes to the church, which is then used to budget the Vatican’s
deficit.
This was a pretty big blow to the Pope when the news broke.
Basically, churches all over the world ask people for money to help the poor.
But instead of giving all the money that they collect to those poor people, they use some
of the money to keep the electricity on in their churches.
But how else is a church supposed to pay the bills other than donations?
What do you think?
4.
The Pope’s Swiss Guard In the year 1527, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles
V had just conquered the French.
But he had a major problem.
Charles didn't have enough money to pay his army of 34,000 standing men.
The soldiers were furious, and so they started to march on Rome.
These soldiers wanted payment, and they were going to get it by sacking and pillaging the
Papal States.
On May 6, 1527, the Holy Roman Emperor’s underpaid Imperial Army looted Rome and caused
havoc inside the city for 12 days.
The only defense Rome had was the city’s 5000-man-strong militia, and 189 members of
the Pope’s Swiss Guard.
The last stand was made at the Vatican, and every last defender of Rome died except for
40 Swiss Guards who made it their duty to escort Pope Clement VII to safety.
Even though the Vatican was defeated, the Imperial Army was utterly torn to shreds.
While that many deaths seem like a disturbing loss for the Swiss Guards, consider that the
elite unit crushed the fighting force of the Imperial Army by three-quarters.
Of the 20,000 troops that stormed the city of Rome, 15,000 were killed or injured by
the city’s guardians.
Basically, the Pope’s warriors turned out to be even tougher than Leonidas’s 300 Spartans.
3.
A Lot of Property The Pope controls not only all of Vatican
City, along with who knows how many investment properties across the world, but the church
also owns some pretty unexpected pieces of property.
For example, the Holy See owns the Scala Sancta, a set of 28 marble steps that lead up to the
Lateran Basilica in Rome.
Catholics believe these are the stairs that Jesus walked in Jerusalem as he went to his
trial.
The fact that the Holy See owns such an important religious sanctuary is pretty major.
But that's not all.
The church also owns the Apostolic Palace, a massive chunk of real estate in Italy, and
the old residence of Emperor Domitian.
In 1596, the Pope had the property purchased, and it's been used as a vacation home for
the leaders of the Vatican ever since.
The place is gorgeous, and pretty much only used when one of the popes wants to take a
bit of a break.
But perhaps the weirdest thing the church owns is the Mount Graham International Observatory
in Tucson, Arizona.
For an organization that long ago persecuted scientists and killed anyone willing to discuss
the intricacies of the universe, it might seem a little weird for them to own their
very own observatory.
The Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope was completed in 1993, and the observatory
is still one of the leading astrological sites in the United States of America.
I suppose the church had a change of heart about science and the universe.
2.
Major Crime One thing you won't see on the Vatican brochures
is their crime rate.
As the smallest country in the world, the Vatican has one of the highest crime rates
per capita.
If you look at the figures, the Vatican is the most dangerous place to go for nonviolent
crimes.
Yet how can this be when the Vatican is home to only about 1000 residents, most of which
are nuns and priests for the Catholic Church?
Well, it's all about the tourists.
There are about 18 million visitors who cross the border into Vatican City each year.
And because there are so many tourists, you can expect there to be heaps of crime.
The Vatican has a crime rate of about 1- 1.5 crimes committed per person every year.
What that means is that, on average, every person who visits the Vatican is going to
commit at least one or one and a half crimes.
And while that may sound scary, the truth is that it's really just a lot of pickpockets
and minor criminals shoplifting and stealing wallets.
According to Crime and Punishment Worldwide, roughly 90% of these crimes are never prosecuted.
1.
Tons of Gold The International Business Times reported
in 2014 that the Vatican had somewhere around $20,000,000 in gold reserves being kept in
the US Federal Reserve.
That's a lot of gold for the church to be holding onto.
But gold is hardly where the money’s at these days.
Besides all that priceless yellow, the Vatican has about $764,000,000 in equity across their
accounts, and they manage somewhere around $64 billion in global assets.
The Vatican is also rumored to have a large store of gold reserves throughout the world,
kept in various countries for safekeeping.
We don't know exactly how much gold the Vatican has, but it's certainly more than most people
are hiding in their jewelry boxes.
Considering their gold reserves, the countless artifacts they have that are basically giant
gold blocks, and whatever else they're keeping stashed away, most experts believe they have
about $50,000,000 in total worth of solid gold.
Even if the banking systems fail globally, the Vatican will still be filthy rich because
of its gold reserves.
They’ve been stockpiling the stuff for about 2000 years.
It’s less difficult now to locate information about the Vatican’s funds thanks to recent
reforms made by the Pope concerning the Vatican’s finances, but the evidence is still not easy
to come by.
One thing we know for sure is, The Vatican has tons of Gold!
Which of these wild Vatican secrets shocked you the most?
Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching today’s video!
Be sure to hit that subscribe button and come back again real soon for more amazing stuff
from the channel!
See you then, bye!