Vatican City, May 6, 2017 / 10:46 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As 40 new Swiss Guards take an oath to defend and protect Pope Francis, their commander has emphasized that their role is not only to be a security force, but has a spiritual aspect as well.
“If someone in the (job) interview only talks about security and doesn’t know who they are giving security for…for me he is not a candidate,” Christoph Graf, Commander of the Swiss Guard, told journalists May 5.
“For me a candidate must have a foundation in the faith, to be a practicing Catholic” who goes to Mass and prays, he said, adding that if a young man knows nothing of the faith, “I don’t know what he’s looking for (in the Swiss Guard).”
Because of the army’s ties to the Pope and to the Church, he said having a solid faith life is “fundamental,” and explained that it’s even possible “to help some on the path of faith” if they have only a minimal knowledge.
In addition to being a line of defense for the Bishop of Rome, the Guard must also be “missionary,” he said, saying they must protect the Pope “with weapons, but also the faith. With prayer.”
Graf, who has served as the 35th Commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard since 2015, spoke at a press conference a day ahead of the official swearing-in of 40 new Swiss Guards, who take a special oath to defend and protect the Pope.
With roughly 100 applicants for 30-35 spots each year, competition to be a Swiss Guard is tough, Graf said – there is a process of filtering the candidates in order to ween the list down to 40 or 50 people, who come to him for a final interview.
After speaking with each of them for 15-20 minutes, “you know” who the real candidates are, he said.
Those who are accepted serve for a minimum of two years, but can also stay in service for an additional year or two, which was the case for many guards during last year’s Jubilee of Mercy.
With a motto of “Courage and Loyalty,” the Pontifical Swiss Guard currently has just over 110 members, making it the smallest, though oldest army in the world.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”es” dir=”ltr”><a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/Vaticano?src=hash”>#Vaticano</a>. <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/GuardiasSuizos?src=hash”>#GuardiasSuizos</a> preparándose para su ceremonia dónde jurarán fidelidad al Papa. Fotos: <a href=”https://twitter.com/aciprensa”>@aciprensa</a> <a href=”https://t.co/Cx3bO3wMjZ”>pic.twitter.com/Cx3bO3wMjZ</a></p>— Daniel Ibáñez (@dibanezgut) <a href=”https://twitter.com/dibanezgut/status/860865593112711168″>May 6, 2017</a></blockquote>
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The official swearing-in ceremony takes place each year on the anniversary of the May 6, 1527 battle that has come to be known as the Sack of Rome, and which was the most significant and deadly event in the history of the Swiss Guard.
In the course of the battle, 147 guards lost their lives while fighting the army of the mutinous Holy Roman Empire in defense of Clement VII, who was able to escape through a secret passageway leading from the Vatican to Castel Sant’Angelo, which sits next to the Tiber River.
As part of the schedule this year, the family members of the new guards prayed Vespers the evening of May 5 in the church of Santa Maria della Pieta in the Vatican’s Teutonic College. Later, the “deposition of the crown” ceremony took place in commemoration of the guards who died during the Sack of Rome.
Before taking their official oath in the afternoon, the guards had 7:30 a.m. Mass with Cardinal Gerhard Muller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica.
They then met with Pope Francis before getting ready for the swearing-in ceremony, which took place in the San Damasco courtyard of the apostolic palace and was attended by Graf and representatives of the Swiss Army and the Swiss government, as well as the Bishops Conference of Switzerland.
During the event, each new recruit approaches the flag of the Swiss Guard when his name is called out. Firmly grasping the banner with his left hand, the new guard raises his right hand and opens three fingers as a sign of his faith in the Holy Trinity.
As he holds up his fingers, the guard proclaims this oath: “I, (name), swear diligently and faithfully to abide by all that has just been read out to me, so grant me God and so help me his saints.”
In English, the full oath reads: “I swear I will faithfully, loyally and honorably serve the Supreme Pontiff Francis and his legitimate successors, and also dedicate myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing if necessary also my life to defend them. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the see is vacant. Furthermore, I promise to the Commanding Captain and my other superiors respect, fidelity and obedience. This I swear! May God and our Holy Patrons assist me!”
In comments to CNA, one of the new guards, Filippo Inches, spoke of the connection between his service and the faith, saying that “without doubt my faith has increased and has been fortified.”
“Because living 24/7 in this environment, in the context of the Vatican, surrounded by all these monsignors, archbishops and the Pope himself; participating at least one or twice a week in one of his events, listening to his preaching – inevitably and involuntarily something sticks,” he said.
Inches, who has served as a Swiss Guard for the past 11 months, is from the small Swiss town of Vacallo, which sits on the border with Italy, just 37 miles north of Milan. He took his official oath to protect and defend Pope Francis alongside 39 other guards this year.
By serving in the small army, “you also realize increasingly how important the role of the Church is as an institution,” he said, suggesting that while the Church is often criticized from the outside, being on the inside shows a different story.
“On the inside, you are aware of how many efforts are made to seek for dialogue, and peaceful solution to the various controversies and conflicts, whether on a political level, an economic level, cultural with different forums and also at the scientific level,” Inches said.
The guard explained that he had wanted to join ever since he was young. He traveled to Rome often as a child, where he always noticed the Swiss Guard, but it wasn’t until he was studying humanities in university that he decided to jump into the “adventure” of becoming one.
He said that for him, defending the Pope means “being a part of history” given the army’s ancient roots.
“So belonging to this corps I am very proud,” he said, “you see the universality, both of the Church and of history.”
Inches said he has had the opportunity to see the Pope and speak with him on several occasions during events or while standing guard outside his room.
“It can happen that he greets you, extending his hand and exchanging some joke,” he said, adding that what moves him most is when he sees the Pope coming in and out of his room, because “he gives this look like there is always a certain familiarity between him and the guards.”
In his speech to the guards and their families before the official swearing-in ceremony, Pope Francis told the guards that while they might not be called to give their lives like the 127 who died during the Sack of Rome, they are called “to another sacrifice no less arduous: to serve the power of faith.”
“This is a true barrier to resist the various strengths and powers of this world and above all he who is the ‘prince of this world’,” the Pope said, telling the guards they are called to be “strong and valorous, sustained by faith in Christ and by his Word of salvation.”
He invited them to live their time in Rome with “sincere brotherhood,” supporting each other in an exemplary Christian life that is “motivated and supported by your faith.”
“I’m sure that the strongest push to come to Rome to fulfill this service was given to you precisely by your faith,” he said, explaining that their mission comes primarily from their baptism, which allows them to bear witness to their faith in Christ.
He urged them to practice charitable service toward one another, being “missionary disciples” in the daily tasks which might seem repetitive, but to which “it is important to always give new meaning.”
During his speech at the swearing-in, Graf noted that this year marks the 600th anniversary of the birth of one of the patron saints of the Swiss Guard, St. Nicholas of Flue, known as the “defensor Pacis et pater patriate,” or, “the defender of peace and the father of our country.” Other patron saints are St. Martin and St. Sebastian.
Graf encouraged the guards to look to Scripture and the lives of the saints for examples of how to give their lives generously and with humility, saying “whoever wants to successfully guide must first learn how to love people.”
He pointed to various economic and political crises taking place throughout Europe, including those of poverty, unemployment, terrorism, migration and “a growing Islamophobia,” which are causing “a certain sense of impotence and disorientation.”
“Must not a cause for this crisis also be sought in the growing disappearance of faith, in the growing lack of God?” he asked.
“Wake up, dear Christians!” he said. “The present world has a new need for examples, especially in our Europe.”
“The present world needs simple and humble people who live and bear witness to the faith. People who carry out their daily duties with love, who pray and do penance,” he said, asking for both prayer and fasting, saying “you will be surprised at what you can do with that.”
[…]
Another whack job with a token catholic look but underneath the sulphuric emissions are all too real! Lord, come back soon!
This woman is a troublemaker, as is Francis. Whenever people use the word “extreme” to describe ideas other than their own, I conclude that they’re into demonizing those with whom they disagree. I pray for the Pope’s successor that he will be a faithful Catholic.
The Pontiff Francis believes that “his-reform,” (which is “the-evil-spirit-of-vadigun-too”) is halfway to its goal, which is, as the woman “Ms-Caram-of-Argentina” represents, the “new-pagan-church-of-sacramental-sodomy.”
These above understand their duty to protect and defend the serial-sex-abusers of their cult, like “Rev.” Rupnik. He must remain free, to send a message to the “rigid, childish, backwardist” pewsitters, who the ruler of their cult is, and that The Beast who rules the world, is likewise their Occult Lord and Mistress.
calling myself an evangelical catholic I have to concur with many of your views. In Ireland which has lost most of its catholic ethos some of us who are sinners still recognise our sins but we certainly do not condone sin. And that is what homosexaulity is. A disbelief in Hell is another popular perception at present. It is a dangerous one and of course is aimed at the young who remain so vulnerable because of the society they have been brought into.
Utterly unsurprising. The Pope has surrounded himself with shallow revolutionaries and heretics for many decades. He is comfortable among them because he is one of them. We become like the people we choose as friends. Pray for all of them, and those who parrot their lies.
Amen!
Poor judgment by Pope Francis in his guest selections, at the very least! He’s not protecting Catholic teaching.
Yes, yes, yes.
Has he ever? He is as bad as the rest of them and probably way worse
Arguing for gay marriage, denying the existence of hell, defending abortion, vilifying the moral code laid down in the Bible — and Bergoglio meets with her? Encourages her?
Never mind hell. Will the Catholic Church exist once Bergoglio’s diabolical papacy is finished?
Our Lord said the Gates of Hell will not prevail for a reason, and He did not say how close they might come. Pope Paul saw the smoke. We are seeing the flames.
And he enables Rupnik while booting Strickland and Burke.
Appalling.
Here’s a story idea for CWR:
Bergoglio is the worst pope in how many hundreds of years?
Was there ever a Borgia as bad as this?
How about Stephen VI? John XII? Boniface VIII?
I would love to see how our own Bergoglio stacks up with some of the worst billing in Church history.
Worst popes. Not worst “billing.”
(Sigh.)
. the listing of the name of a performer, act, or the like, on a marquee, poster, handbill, etc., esp. in regard to prominence: got top billing.
(I think he meant the prominence relationship/top tier as far as billing, perhaps)
It appears the cult of faux katholics is not to be undone…
When Pope Francis welcomes and talks to clergy who has opposing Catholic views than the Church, shows us that he is tolerant, it doesn’t mean that he agrees with their views and/or life styles. Wouldn’t Jesus do the same? However, Jesus would probably correct them gently and would tell them to sin no more.
I also wonder what Pope Francis reaction would be with very Orthodox and/or traditional Catholics. I assume that he would be kind too. Isn’t this what Jesus would want from the Pope, and/or one of us?
Therefore, let’s stop speculating what the Pope’s intentions are when he welcomes clergy who disagree with Catholic doctrine. However, that’s not easy to do, and I think the Vatican should explain what the objective of these meeting between the Pope and controversial Catholic clergy.
The Vatican needs to be more transparent in this area and many others!
That’s exactly the problem – Francis has marginalized orthodox and traditional Catholics, used all sorts of pejorative names to describe them, dismissed them from their positions and refuses to meet with them. That’s how fair and open minded this pope is and why some of us have chosen to ignore every utterance of his.
When has he had anything but praise for the actual heterodoxy of the heretics and insults for loyal Catholics?
Dominican Sister Lucía Caram espouses heresy through her Spanish media outlet and Pope Francis encourages her to continue. Not the garden variety topics like Fiducia Suplicans. Rather the high toxic variety like freedom to commit abortion [a freedom she says God cannot object to because of the very gift of freedom], Catholic Church homosexual marriage, non existence of hell.
When the Holy Father visited Athens a Greek Orthodox priest famously shouted, Papa! Eísai Hairetikós. Pope! You are a heretic. We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it. However, what Gk Orthodox Fr Ionis shouted is what much of the world believes. If not the heretical condemnation, at least the predilection of beliefs. The planet has become largely heterodox insofar as Christ’s revelation and Catholic moral doctrine.
Diabolic in its etymological Gk form means to disrupt, to break apart. If there is a clear, unambiguous policy identified in this pontificate it’s to dismember, to break apart the unity that existed and that distinguished Catholic Christianity through the centuries.
“We know that canonically he’s not, because the formal canonical conviction requires adamancy and consistency. Francis knows that and avoids it.”
In the sport of wrestling, the action is considered in bounds so long as any part of either wrestler’s body remains with the circle that defines the boundary. Many wrestlers have scored points by having only the tops of their shoes inside that area. Francis is constantly drifting out to the perimeter, ever so careful to leave one toe in, as he continually shoots ankle picks on matters than he wishes to pin.
Perhaps it’s better to remain completely in bounds when the referee is the Almighty and might recognize a transparent attempt to stall or flee the mat.
A really good, humorous analogy. Wonder that he knows he can fool a lot of us but not God, then what is his game? The presumptive answer isn’t pleasant. A reason why I offer my prayer with deep intent at the, Recordare, Domine, Ecclesiae tuae toto orbe diffusae, ut eam in caritate perficias, una com Papa nostro Francis.
That’s una ‘cum’ Papa nostro Francis. Cum, meaning with, referring to unity, which is where the disruption is. The literal dismembering of the Body of Christ.
Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines. Jesus came for all of us not just for those christians who are perfect.
“Those who criticize the Pope and sister need to get their Bibles out and read between the lines.”
Deep. But what about those who criticize those who criticize the Pope and sister?
You too may choose to read. Rev. 21:1-8. Then ask the Holy Spirit’s help to figure out where you may be found in the book.
So it’s a mere “imperfection” for a nun or an American President to promote abortion and for a Pope to praise them for such devotion to such a world view? And there it is an objective evil to criticize cold-blooded moral indifference to this greatest crime in human history?
He did not come for the righteous is how I understand it.
Obviously you’re the one who did not get your Bible out. And if you did you probably did not read it.
Go on. Start reading.
Just when you might think that anything could not get worse with this papacy—another new mess.
Sister Caram has the right to preach a gospel. It’s just not, undeniably, the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a gospel with no hell, ergo no real need for repentance and conversion. I’m OK, you’re OK.
She has a right to advocate for her version of a church. It is just not, undeniably, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is rather a church that surrenders to the secular culture on abortion, pornography and just about everything else. A church destined for irrelevance because if a church does identify with the secular culture, who then needs it?
We read, for example: “In 2014, she told La Opinión de Málaga online news that ‘those who freely make the decision [to abort] have to be the people [involved]. The Church cannot meddle in there. Not even God, who made us free for a reason’.”
Consider the abruptness, totality and irreversibly of being (ex)terminated even before we see the light of day. Sometimes with a scissors through the skull in a late-term abortion. Small wonder that Pope St. John Paul II identified abortion as an “unspeakable crime.”
But, hey, in bizarro-world Sister What’sername ingests face time with the papacy she despises.
We notice that in another posting today, one of the issues for the next Synod and for the earlier working groups is “the mission in the digital age.” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2024/03/14/pope-francis-study-groups-to-examine-10-synod-on-synodality-themes-through-june-2025/
Fraud-alert! These two have chosen nomenclature to connote a St. Pope Francis and a St. Sr. Lucia! Instead of fraudsters, let us think on our dear Lord Jesus and his good true saints who also suffered fraudsters. These two shall pass as shall we. Some will die twice but others only once. Good Christian soldiers, stand guard and stay strong through the blood of Christ.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And the who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Rev. 21:1-8.
You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism, but even I think Religion Digital is over the line. As a Franciscan we try to live – Gospel to Life, Life to Gospel. Not easy for some Catholics to accept.
Peace my friends
Next time, just tell us you think whatever you embrace makes you better than the rest of us.
Have you ever found yourself thanking the Almighty that you aren’t like the rest of the rabble?
“You folks would probably consider me on the lunatic fringe of Catholicism…”. Cease wondering. Yes, I do. Not even on the fringe. More, I have metaphysical certitude that the OSF has little to do any more with St. Francis of Assisi.
“If any are found who…are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may have found such a one, be bound through obedience to bring him before the custodian of that place nearest to where they found him. And the custodian is strictly bound by obedience to keep him securely day and night as a prisoner, so that he cannot be taken from his hands until he can personally deliver him into the hands of his minister. And the minister is bound by obedience to send him with such brothers who shall guard him as a prisoner until they deliver him to the Lord of Ostia, who is the Master, the Protector and the Corrector of this fraternity.”
The Testament of St. Francis
Ah, how Catholic media so quickly adopted woke-speak as put forth in the woke bible “style book”….this sister and her pals are only “controversial”, not heretical.
Anything inside the Church today which flaunts ancient teaching and scripture is only “controversial” and not heretical.
And then folk wonder why Catholic media seems to be so ineffective in helping staunch the tidal wave of the “controversial” swamping the Church, and same with pronouncements by hierarchy.
It really is time for the villagers to gather and remove the threat of the Jesuit vampires.
“Continue fighting for this living Church…”🤣 Brilliant! Reads like St. Basil the Great! More like drivel from the formation manual of the Berkeley Jesuits. 🤦🏼♂️
Not that it’s wrong in itself for the Pope to meet with simpatico atheists…(Does this pontificate believe that anything is objectively wrong?)
Yes, plastic straws and backwardist rigidity (i.e., virtually anything that smacks of orthodox Catholicism).
After promising long ago never to go there again, I made myself google “Berkeley Jesuits.” The front page of the Jesuit School of Theology is actually worse than the rubbage of this pontificate. I had to put a mask on to read it! 😷
Living Theology. [I’m alive!]
Transforming Our World. [I’m a transformer!]
The most dynamic and rigorous learning occurs at the intersection of scholarship and culture. [I’m intersecting!]
Health Advisory Alert: Find Covid-19 announcements and resources from JST here. [I’m distancing!]
Find Your Purpose [I’m on purpose!]
Dear Fool!
You’ve had this disordered order and its pathetic prelate pegged from the beginning.
Now you reveal that there is actually a googlable page for ‘Berkeley Jesuits.’
I would never have believed it. I mean, talk about redundancy!