2) The Pope promised to remain neutral in p olitics and wars.
On the off chance that, you know, Mussolini thought this might be a thing.
The deal was signed and a new country, Vatican City was born. And today the tiny nation on a hill
has all the things you'd expect of a country: its own government that makes its own laws that are
enforced by its own police, who put people who break them in its own jail. It also has its own bank
and prints its own stamps and issues its own license plates, though only its citizens can drive within
its borders presumably because of terrible, terrible parking -- and as the true mark of any self-
respecting nation: it has its own top-level domain: .VA But, despite all these national trappings
Vatican City is not really like any other country. Hold on to your fancy hat, because it's about to get
weird: To understand the Vatican: there are two people and two things that you need to know about:
the famous pope, the incredibly confusing Holy See, The Country of Vatican City and
along with that the almost completely unknown King of Vatican City.
But first the Pope: who gets a throne to sit upon and from which he acts as the Bishop
for all the Catholics in Rome.
Actually all Bishops in the Catholic Church get their own thrones but because the Bishop
of Rome is also the Pope his thrown is special and has it's own special name: The Holy See.
Every time a Pope dies or retires there is a sort of game of thrones to see which of the bishops will
next get to occupy the Holy See. So while Popes come and go the throne is eternal. As such the
name The Holy See not only refers to the throne but also all the rules that make the Catholic Church
the Catholic Church. When Mussolini crafted that aforementioned deal, technically he gave the land
of Vatican . City to The Holy See -- which, believe it or not, is a legal corporate person in international
law. Basically every time you hear the words The Holy See think Catholic Church, Inc of