In just a few weeks, almost 200 students, faculty, and staff of the Austrian Program will head to one of the greatest cities on this earth, the "eternal city" of Rome.
Here in this sprawling city lies arguably the greatest church in western civilization: St. Peter's Basilica and naturally St. Peter's is part of the Vatican City State.
Yesterday in Rome, they celebrated the 80 anniversary of the Vatican City state.
Vatican City State was inaugurated on 11 February 1929 with the signing of the Lateran Accords. Under the motto, “A small territory with a great mission” and indeed it does have a great mission providing spiritual sustenance to pilgrims and the world.
One of the more interesting facts about the Vatican City state is its population:
The population of Vatican City is about 800 people, of whom over 450 have Vatican citizenship, while the rest have permission to reside there, either temporarily or permanently, without the benefit of citizenship.
About half of the Vatican’s citizens do not live inside Vatican City. Because of their occupations (mostly as diplomatic personnel), they live in different countries around the world. The conferral or loss of citizenship, authorization to live inside Vatican City and formalities for entering the territory, are governed by special regulations issued according to the Lateran Treaty.
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