WEBVTT - Fan Favorite: What are the Greatest Secrets Hiding in the Vatican? 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:01.880 Guess what will what's that man go? So I was 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:03.680 telling my kids about how my family used to go 0:00:03.720 --> 0:00:06.360 on really long car trips when I was young, Like 0:00:06.440 --> 0:00:08.680 my mom and dad loved piling us up in the 0:00:08.680 --> 0:00:12.280 car and just driving to really cool places. And occasionally 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.800 there was an excuse for it, right, like once they 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.480 drove us from New Jersey all the way to Quebec City, 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.200 just so my dog could drink some holy water, just 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.560 so your dog could drink. Yeah, as I'm saying this 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:25.840 out loud, I realized it makes less and less sense. 0:00:26.200 --> 0:00:28.320 But our dog was ill at the time, and we'd 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.040 adopted him as a pop from this Catholic family, and 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:33.680 even though we aren't Catholic, my mom decided she wanted 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:37.239 to honor his religious traditions. So we drove all the 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:39.479 way up to sant and de Properate, which is this 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.840 stunning basilica in Quebec City where a lot of healing 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:45.400 miracles tend to happen, and we let him laugh up 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:47.519 some holy water there. Your mom is the best. What 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:49.239 a great idea, But I do have to ask did 0:00:49.240 --> 0:00:51.960 it work? And did your dog live? Yeah? Well, we 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.120 all fell in love with Quebec, so that part worked 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.800 and uh and he did live for a few more years. 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:59.080 So I'm not sure whether that was St Anne's doing 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:01.760 or whether his dedication was doing the heavy lifting, but 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:04.800 you know, it did make me curious about the miracles 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.000 that have taken place there, And when I started reading online, 0:01:08.120 --> 0:01:10.880 it sent me down this massive Catholic rabbit hole of 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:14.240 like saints and pilgrimages. And after a few hours, I 0:01:14.280 --> 0:01:16.400 can't tell you how many tabs I had opened about 0:01:16.400 --> 0:01:19.720 like the Vatican's official cricket team and how they've received 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.080 letters from like both Jefferson Davis and Abe Lincoln. Like 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:25.280 I realized we had to do an episode on like 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.920 the Vatican and all the secrets hiding there. So that's 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.440 what today's episode is all about. Why don't we dig in? 0:01:46.400 --> 0:01:48.640 Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:50.880 always I'm joined by my good friend man Guesh Ticketer, 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.640 and today we're talking about the secrets of the Vatican. Now, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:56.360 this is a topic that Mango and one of our 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.120 brilliant researchers, Nolan Brown, have been talking about for a 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.680 few weeks. And so after all that research, Mango, I've 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.040 got several questions for you, But why don't we start 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:06.800 out with this one? Have you ever actually been to 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.160 the Vatican. That's a pretty easy one. I have actually 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:12.680 way back when I was in seventh grade, and I 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:15.560 was completely fascinated on my tour there. But you know 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.440 what's funny was that when I was researching today's episode, 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:20.760 I decided to look up trip Advisor just to see 0:02:20.800 --> 0:02:23.760 what other people thought and what their experiences were. And 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:25.760 one of the things I loved reading was all these 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.160 one star reviews of the place. So I just have 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:30.200 to read a few tears go for it. So this 0:02:30.240 --> 0:02:35.280 one's titled Vending Machines. The vending machine worked very well. 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:37.680 It's worrying when this is the first thing you start 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:40.320 a review with. The Vatican is by far the most 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:45.600 boring place I have visible. One star. And here's another, 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.079 highly recommend you realize what you're getting into before booking 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:51.720 a tour. It's a lot of broken English from guides 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.080 and a lot of paintings in art one star. What 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:57.400 is people expect? And how did this become a hobby 0:02:57.440 --> 0:02:59.480 of ours where we like going to different places and 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.639 just eating the one star reviews and trip Advisor. I 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.079 remember we were looking at once, for uh, I think 0:03:05.080 --> 0:03:07.760 it was Yellowstone, and one of them about Yellowstone was 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:11.600 just a bigger central park but with bears. But we're 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:14.560 obviously coming from a very controversial angle that there's plenty 0:03:14.600 --> 0:03:16.519 to see at the Vatican. But I do want to 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:19.160 clarify for our listeners up front. I know there's a 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.000 lot of history on vatty leagues and sex scandals and whatnot, 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:26.000 and of course there's plenty of discussion around all of 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.520 those things, but today's show is really just about the 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.880 surprising things we didn't realize about Vatican City and the 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:34.880 Vatican both and how it functions, but also what's hiding 0:03:34.920 --> 0:03:37.560 behind those walls. Yeah, we're not trying to knock religion 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:39.800 or delve into controversy. We just want to dig into 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:42.320 the fascinating history. All right, Well let's start with that. Then. 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:44.760 Why why do you think it's such a fascinating place 0:03:44.760 --> 0:03:47.320 for us? Well, for me, part of it's that the 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:50.160 Church has played this outsized role in history. I mean 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.680 you think about the Crusades and the early explorers and 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.080 people like Mendel and Copernicus. I mean, the Catholic Church 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.960 is just this constant, recurring character in our history. Books, 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.120 but at the same time, there's so much that's cloaked 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.880 in mystery, and as an outsider's just completely unnoble when 0:04:05.880 --> 0:04:07.640 it comes to the rituals of the church. What do 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:09.360 you mean by that, Well, I feel like you read 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:13.120 these tiny tidbits and they seem totally impossible but also 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:17.120 maybe true. Like I read this widely circulated story that 0:04:17.120 --> 0:04:19.840 when the pope passes away, the physician will tap him 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.560 on the forehead three times with a special silver hammer, 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:25.640 just to make sure he's actually dead. That does sound 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:29.120 maybe made up, right, And that's what I thought too. 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:31.960 It's like too good to be true. But also I'm 0:04:31.960 --> 0:04:33.680 not a priest. I don't know, so I looked it 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.320 up on snopes and they can't tell whether it's true either. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:39.440 I mean, there actually is a tiny silver death hammer, 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.520 and it sits in waiting at the Vatican, and once 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:45.520 the Pope passes away, it actually does have the special 0:04:45.600 --> 0:04:48.360 use like first to Chamberlain will call out the deceased 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:51.200 pope's name three times, which sounds a little like the 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.520 forehead thing, right, And if the Pope doesn't respond, the 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:56.600 hammers used to break the seal on the pope's ring 0:04:56.880 --> 0:04:59.160 and only then is the room cordoned off, and that's 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.440 when they actually start ranging for the funeral. Well, with 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.400 all that detail, I mean, I guess it sounds like 0:05:03.440 --> 0:05:06.120 there's some truth there. Yeah, according to Snopes, there probably 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:08.240 was a time when the hammer was used to you know, 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:10.800 double check that the pope was dead, back when people 0:05:10.839 --> 0:05:13.600 are accidentally buried alive. But you know, it's a long 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.960 time since then. Still, I think you can see what 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:19.360 I mean, right, Like, there's so much old ceremony and 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:22.239 tradition that isn't really public knowledge. That makes it easy 0:05:22.279 --> 0:05:24.880 for someone like, you know, a writer like Dan Brown 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:27.240 right at the edge of these myths and make all 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.760 these things feel plausible. Well, and there's so many things 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:32.600 like that. I remember before we even talking about this episode, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.400 reading some story about those pope chairs with the holes 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.720 in them. Did yeah, the Holy chairs? All right, So 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:40.640 for our listeners that don't know about these, these are 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.560 these strange chairs. Was holes at the center of the seat, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.320 and there's this, I guess, kind of a dubious origin 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:49.080 story that accompanies them. So the legend goes back to 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.480 whether or not there was a female pope at one point, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.719 and supposedly there was this very astute pope named John 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:57.279 who turned out to be a Jane. And the story 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.680 goes that, you know, she was pregnant and giving birth 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.240 during a parade, and then of course because of this, 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:04.320 she was stoned to death when everybody realized she was 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.520 a woman. And after that happened, the church made future 0:06:07.560 --> 0:06:09.920 pope sit in a chair with a hole in it, so, 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:12.159 you know, so that a physician could reach through the 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.120 bottom and verify the pope's manhood. How weird is this 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.720 so outrageous? Like why would you need a chair for that? Wait? Wait, 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:21.200 how else would you do a physical? But you see 0:06:21.200 --> 0:06:24.279 this story everywhere. I saw one on Scientific American about 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.840 Pope Benedict the third and they were doing a check 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:29.560 on him and apparently they all said, thanks be to God. 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.920 After the check you to verify that he had testicles. 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:35.960 And you know, there's some speculation from historians that maybe 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.800 the chair was used to ensure a pope hadn't been castrated. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.720 But it's it's honestly all very murky. Yeah, and it's 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:43.600 it's all kind of like that silver hammer, right, like 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.520 these chairs actually do exist. Yeah, well that you know, 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.040 there's plenty of tradition and history that we don't know. 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:50.840 But why don't we start with some of the things 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:53.040 that we do. You know, after all your research, I 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:54.359 think maybe you should give us a little bit of 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:57.400 background on the Vatican. Yeah, yeah, I can definitely do that. Actually, 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.240 let me just pull up in my notes so on aue. 0:07:00.240 --> 0:07:02.960 The Vatican City is like the spiritual and governing center 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.279 of the Roman Catholic Church. And originally the land was 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.600 actually this Marshy area and then apparently it turned into 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.800 the CD district. But by Colligula's time in thirty seven 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:15.800 a d. It had totally been gentrified, like there are 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.520 nice houses and gardens and whatnot. And today, like the 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.240 area is pretty much built around St. Peter's tomb because 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.080 that's the area where he was martyred. Vatican spans, if 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:28.280 you think about it, like about a hundred acres or so, 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.000 and it's considered a monarchy with about a thousand people 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:32.920 living there. And the pope is at the top of 0:07:32.960 --> 0:07:35.240 that obviously, but something I would not have thought about before. 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:37.960 But there's no vice pope, right, Yeah, he's he's kind 0:07:37.960 --> 0:07:40.160 of alone at the top. I mean, he delegates duties 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.000 to various people and councils. But all that stuff you 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.960 think about with the three branches of government, like legislative, judicial, executive, like, 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.760 all of that sits with him. Plus he's got all 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.560 the spiritual things to deal with. It's a ton of responsibility. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:55.840 And the funny thing is there's no turning the job 0:07:55.880 --> 0:07:58.200 down when you're nominated, Like you can't say no to God. 0:07:58.400 --> 0:08:00.480 Well that's true, but I have read seven real times 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:02.760 about all these cardinals that don't want the job that 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:05.120 get really stressed out thinking about it just because of 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:08.760 all of the international responsibility that that goes with the job. Yeah, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:10.280 I mean, like you've got to deal with the church's 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.920 legal stuff and the public relations. All that falls on 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.200 your shoulders and it can feel overwhelming. But you know 0:08:16.240 --> 0:08:18.520 what's funny is the room the new pope is scored 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.080 to after he's just been elected. It actually has a nickname. 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.360 It's called the Room of Tears. Yeah, it's a big job, 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:26.880 and most popes need some time to compose themselves and 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.360 like deal with the motion after they've been nominated. And 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.360 here's something else about that room. Because no one knows 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:34.520 who the next pope is going to be, The tailors 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:38.360 actually have three papal ropes waiting. There's a small, medium 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.559 and large. I never really thought about it, but I 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:43.199 guess I just kind of assumed it was a one 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.440 fits all kind of thing. But you know, you're right, 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.760 no one knows who's going to be elected. There's actually 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:51.160 this great story about Pope Fabian, who wasn't even a 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:53.800 candidate for the pope, but a dove landed on his 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.920 shoulder during the election, and so he got this unanimous 0:08:57.040 --> 0:08:59.240 vote to be pope. And you know, I'll have some 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.680 questions for you out elections and in just a bit. Yeah, good, 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:04.240 because I really want to talk about like how they 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.040 send up black smoke and white smoke, and like when 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.360 they make a decision, it's kind of amazing. Yeah all right, Well, well, 0:09:09.400 --> 0:09:11.120 let's back up for just a second and talk about 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.880 how Vatican City became its own sovereign state. Obviously we 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.520 know when an impact the Roman Catholic Church had on history, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:19.640 but give me a quick sense of why there are 0:09:19.679 --> 0:09:22.280 these hundred acres carved out for it. Yeah, so those 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:24.439 hundred acres are a little fuzzy. I mean, there's a 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.400 McDonald's just outside the Vatican border that's actually on Vatican property, 0:09:28.559 --> 0:09:31.640 and it's kind of blurry. Actually here you can order 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.880 a new Tela burger and fries in this Yeah, that's 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:37.760 kind of an Italy specific thing. And they also don't 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:41.000 allow mixed spaghetti there. That's only a Filipino thing. Okay, 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.360 But you know you're right about the Vatican size. I mean, 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.600 for a while, and we're talking way back in the 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:49.440 eighteen hundreds, the Pope ruled over a number of papal 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:51.960 states in the region. But when Italy unified as a 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:54.680 country in late eighteen hundreds, it's seized up all the 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.280 Vatican's land. And then this really really strange thing happened, right, 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:01.440 and it was completely new to me. Apparently Italy and 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:05.199 the Vatican actually had a cold war. Like I always 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.319 assumed Italy and the Vatican had this super cozy relationship. 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.920 But for about sixty years, the Pope refused to acknowledge 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:14.480 Italy as a country or even going to the balcony 0:10:14.480 --> 0:10:17.520 to bless people, especially if he thought like Italians were 0:10:17.520 --> 0:10:20.559 in the square. And even more than that, the Pope 0:10:20.600 --> 0:10:23.960 refused to leave the Vatican. Like Pope Pius the Ninth 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:26.880 referred to himself as a prisoner of the grounds, but 0:10:27.320 --> 0:10:30.080 here's the craziest part of the story. The person who 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:35.040 actually brokered the peace is Benito Mussolini. Yeah, he delivered 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.040 a pack that recognized the Vatican as sovereign, and in 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.719 the deal, Italy brought back all the land it had 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:44.200 taken for about ninety million dollars or about a billion 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.959 dollars in today's money. Well, and obviously Italy and the 0:10:47.040 --> 0:10:49.520 Vatican have a great relationship. Now. I think there's an 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.920 arrangement where something like eight percent of Italian income taxes 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.840 can be diverted to the Catholic Church if a citizen 0:10:55.920 --> 0:10:58.800 chooses them, and any criminals who were sentenced by the 0:10:58.880 --> 0:11:02.480 Vatican court, they get moved to an Italian prison. And 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.319 if a person loses their Vatican citizenship, which ends when 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:07.240 your job ends there, and if they don't have a 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:10.480 country to go to, they become an Italian citizen by default, 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.280 which has to be the weirdest way to get a citizenship. Well. 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:15.480 You know what's interesting though, that while that one billion 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:17.960 dollar amount we were talking about sounds huge, and you 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.240 think about all the artwork and all the other things 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:23.040 that are in the Vatican, all the treasure the Vatican 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:26.800 isn't exactly swimming and wealth. The annual operating budget is 0:11:26.840 --> 0:11:30.199 about three hundred million dollars that comes in from ties, 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.400 but also museum tickets and printing services and all the 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:35.960 souvenirs and those kinds of things. But I think about 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:39.240 a place like Harvard, the university's annual budget is something 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:42.400 like ten times that, at about three point seven billion. 0:11:42.760 --> 0:11:45.120 It kind of makes the Vaticans proceeds, you know, feel 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.160 almost shoe string. Yeah. And while the Vatican could easily 0:11:48.200 --> 0:11:50.480 put some of that fancy artwork up on Craigslist to 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.760 get some like quick cash, the Vatican has zero intention 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:57.640 of selling anything. As Cardinal Caprio, the budget office once said, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.920 all the artwork belongs to humanity, and the Vatican books 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.880 reflect that. In their accounts. All these billions of dollars 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:07.360 of artwork were assigned a value of one lira, which 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.280 kind of reminds me of the Academy Awards and how 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.400 actors actually have to sign a contract when they win 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.040 an Oscar, Like if they or their heirs want to 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:15.960 sell the trophy, the most they can sell it for 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.040 as a dollar, and they have to offer it to 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.560 the Academy first, alright, But in numbers a dollar was 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:25.160 like two thousand lira, which means if you wanted a 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:27.640 fair trade, that'd be like trading a finger of an 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:31.720 Oscar for the Sistine Chapels, the Pietas, all the Pope's tiaras, 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:34.240 plus all the other treasures of the Vatican. It sounds 0:12:34.280 --> 0:12:37.280 like a good deal. So I'd forgotten about the Pope's tiaras. 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:38.839 By the way, So why don't we talk about the 0:12:38.880 --> 0:12:56.200 Pope's fashion after a little brick? Welcome back to part 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:58.400 time genius, now, Mango. I know we both wanted to 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:00.599 talk the Pope's fashion, and we've all so promised to 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:03.560 talk elections. I know, we promised so much stuff. Plus 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:05.640 I don't think we've given enough details. You have to 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.960 make those one star reviewers happy. Probably not well. I 0:13:09.000 --> 0:13:11.480 was going to suggest the super quick rundown of the 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:14.240 government again. You you guys have done all this research 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:15.640 on this. So here's what I want to do. I'll 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:18.200 give you a department and you tell me a fact 0:13:18.320 --> 0:13:20.200 that you guys have pulled up. That sound good? Yeah, 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.120 and I can use my notes, right all right, Yes, yeah, 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.000 you're allowed to, but you have to close your eyes, 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:28.240 all right, Okay, the fire department so this is easy. Like, 0:13:28.320 --> 0:13:30.040 I love that their fire trucks kind of look like 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:34.840 short busses. All right, what about the justice system. There's 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:39.000 only one judge, got no like an actual judge, but 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:40.480 he has a lot of works. Well have I never 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:42.920 heard about a judge? That's that's so interesting? Okay, how 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.480 about how about treasury? Well there's a coin and stamp department, 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:50.720 but unlike the pope, they're not infallible. In two thou thirteen, 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.559 they issued a coin that mistakenly spelled Jesus as Less, 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.760 which instantly boosted the coin's value, and luckily they only 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:01.320 sold four before they discus that those things are worth 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.920 so much if they've only sold four of them. Okay, 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:05.800 you must have read about this because I just thought 0:14:05.800 --> 0:14:08.439 it was interesting to think about the space program. Yeah, 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.000 so you think with their history with early astronomers that 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.280 the Church wasn't interested in telescopes, but they've actually invested 0:14:14.280 --> 0:14:17.080 in them since the fifteen hundreds and even today. They 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.560 have this advanced Vatican telescope at Mount Graham in Arizona, 0:14:20.760 --> 0:14:23.160 which was built in the nineteen nineties. Like it's really 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.320 an area of interest. So the Vatican has a telescope 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.160 in Arizona. Yeah, because they're interested in the heavens. Oh 0:14:29.200 --> 0:14:33.760 that's interesting. All right. What about the military, Yeah, so, uh, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:35.760 this is easy too. Well, they've they've been using a 0:14:35.800 --> 0:14:39.720 small core of the Swiss Guard since the fourteen hundreds, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:42.120 when the Swiss were considered the best mercenaries in the world. 0:14:42.680 --> 0:14:45.360 And uh, and they don't actually do a lot of fighting, 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:48.760 like obviously they're they're just there for ceremonial purposes. They 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:52.320 were this like really flamboyant guard, and they do wear 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:54.880 plain clothes when they've got duty to protect the pontiff. 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:58.440 But it's highly selective, like they're only a hundred fifty 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:00.440 and you've got to be over five eight and Catholic 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:04.280 and mail and unmarried. There are lots of requirements. Yeah, alright, 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.400 how about athletics. The Vatican actually has a soccer team 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:10.840 and a cricket team. And the cricket team is really 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.440 funny because they've they've only played a few matches, but 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:17.000 they did beat a traveling Dutch team called the Fellowship 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.040 of Fairly Odd Places. Fellowship Fairly Odd Places. That doesn't 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:22.840 sound like it would be a good cricket team. Is 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:24.440 this is this really a thing? I know I want 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.520 the jersey, but that's actually the name. They play like 0:15:26.600 --> 0:15:30.120 old school cricket in places where cricket isn't like traditionally played, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.960 so like Iceland or the Vatican and Dora. But the 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:37.240 Vatican actually trounced them. Oh wow, that's pretty cool. Alright. 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.600 How about transportation? Okay, so I love this one. There's 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:43.400 a train that comes through and there's only one station, 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:45.800 like it just comes in and then it backs out, 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:49.000 and it's mostly for freight. I mean, sometimes a dignitary 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.400 will get on it. But you know, if you're talking 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.400 about like the Pope's transportation, he's got this fleet of cars, 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:58.920 like amazing old fancy cars. But because Francis doesn't love 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.760 fancy things, like he mostly uses his forward focus and 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:06.000 that's his popemobile, and sometimes he pleased with guards to 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:08.200 let him take the city bus. He actually kind of 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.640 sounds like the teenager who's been embarrassed about being driven 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.240 around by his parents. But all right, so what about 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:17.440 the Department of Exorcisms? Was something I saw? Oh actually, 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.240 I've got one more fact about transport that I want 0:16:19.280 --> 0:16:22.440 to say. So this is top secret and off limits, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:25.360 but there's one hollow wall that can be used to 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:27.840 help the pope fleet in case the city has ever sacked, 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.640 and it's been used historically and it runs from the 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:34.000 papal apartments to a castle and possibly to other places. Oh. 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:35.640 I thought maybe you were just trying to get around 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.080 to get the department of exorcisms here while looking for 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:40.440 a fact. But that's actually really interesting. Okay, but you 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.920 still have to do exorcism. Yeah, so you actually hear 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:47.160 less about exorcisms now, but Benedict was obsessed with them, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:50.600 and the Vatican's chief exorcist, this guy, Father Gabriel m R. 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:54.680 He claimed to have performed twenty thousand exorcisms between two 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:57.600 thousand and two thousand ten. Also, you'll never guess his 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.200 favorite movie, The Exorcist. Actually, I think I could have 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:02.960 guessed that once you said that. All right, I think 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:05.159 I've got one more. How about banking? And so this 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:06.600 one we've known for a long time, and it's like 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.280 my favorite fact. The Vatican has the world's only a 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.000 t M that operates in Latin. That is pretty awesome. 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:14.520 All right. So there's certainly a lot for the pope 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:16.359 to think about. But there's one more thing on the 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:19.560 Pope's mind. And that's fashion. So before Frances tried to 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.600 get out of wearing fancy duds and going casual, pope 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.240 fashion was actually kind of a thing. Yeah, it really was. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:28.520 And Benedict was kind of a clothes horse. I mean 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.400 John Paul the second was known for wearing Doc Martin's 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:33.560 and brown ones. Oh yeah, I remember seeing that he 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.320 and the Doali Lama actually traded tips on footwear and 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:39.240 both wore Doc Martin's for their comfort. Yeah, it's funny, 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.600 like I think of Doc Martin's is such a punk 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:45.000 brand and nothing to do with religion. But Benedict, he 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.040 wouldn't be caught deaden those popes in the olden days 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.320 they used to wear red, but he brought the style 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:53.400 back of wearing a red slippers and also the cave 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:56.560 with an ermane for In fact, he was so fashionable 0:17:56.600 --> 0:17:59.399 that Donna Tella Versacci actually designed a line using him 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:01.800 his inspiration. Well, and I know the Church was sensitive 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.240 about Benedict being seen as as two fans. Yeah, when 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:08.480 a reporter commented on his red Gucci slippers, the Vatican 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:11.679 responded by saying that Benedict isn't concerned with labels. And 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.480 here's the statement he said he couldn't spot a Gucci 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.800 from a smoochy. I'm not sure I could either. Yeah, 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.440 I'm not that fashionable. Any other innovations I know, Pope 0:18:21.520 --> 0:18:24.360 John Paul the Second War rainbow vestments once, Yeah, which 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:27.440 was a little disastrous because this artist convinced him that 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.879 the rainbow represented God's promise to Noah that there'd be 0:18:30.960 --> 0:18:34.520 all this peace after the rainstorm. But when the artist 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.960 later suggested that maybe it was a gesture of goodwill 0:18:37.000 --> 0:18:40.239 to the LGBT community, the Vatican responded that no one 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.800 has a copyright on rainbows. And what about those ceremonial tiaras, 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.760 they're they're so ornate. Yeah, Well, the only person I 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:50.959 could find who was truly envious of the trs was Napoleon. Like, 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.760 apparently the crown wears about seven pounds, but when he 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:57.359 designed one and gifted it to a pope, and he 0:18:57.400 --> 0:18:58.720 had the thought in the back of his mind that 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:01.600 one day he might like take power, he constructed a 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:04.800 ten pound t r I know, which is so Napoleon. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.959 That's like a bowling ball on your head. Crazy. But 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:10.440 background is actually also in the rotation, and they are 0:19:10.480 --> 0:19:13.240 often warned during important events like you know during the 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:15.879 papal coronation. All right, well that brings us back to 0:19:15.920 --> 0:19:17.920 the election of the pope, as we promised we would 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:19.879 get to. I do know there's a council and they 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:23.360 deliberate forever and they decide I think under the Sistine Chapel. 0:19:23.920 --> 0:19:26.320