Found When Looking For Something Else - 1

I read dictionaries, whether I want to or not. You know how it is: you set out to find the definition of one word and, as you page through the book, you see some other interesting word and stop to see what it means. Back to the hunt, you find another and another before you locate the word you actually were looking for.

Happens with search engines, as well. I ran into this the other day while looking for something else.

There are 557 citizens of Vatican City as of December 31, 2005. Of these, 58 are cardinals, 293 are clergy with status as members of pontifical representations (whatever that means, but it sounds important), 62 are other members of the clergy, 101 are members of the Swiss Guard and the remaining 43 are other lay persons.

Vatican citizenship is not inherited nor can it be acquired by being born in the city. It can only be acquired based on service to the Holy See and is revoked upon termination of employment by the Vatican. The 1929 Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy says that if a person ceases to be a citizen of the Holy See, and does not have citizenship elsewhere, Italian citizenship is granted.

There were 111 marriages recorded in Vatican City for 2005. However, the stats do not record if these people were allowed to consummate their marriages within the walls, or if any births resulted from such acts of carnal pleasure. I would assume the Vatican drugstore does not stock any of the more common birth control devices.