Vatican City Government - 1986

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Official name: State of the Vatican City

Type: monarchical-sacerdotal state

Capital: Vatican City

Political subdivisions: Vatican City includes St Peter’s, the Vatican Palace and Museum, and neighboring buildings covering more than 100 acres; 13 buildings in Rome and

Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence, although outside the boundaries, enjoy extraterritorial rights

Legal system: Canon laws of 1929 serve some of the functions of a constitution

National holiday: 30 June

Branches: the Pope possesses full executive, legislative, and judicial powers; he delegates these powers to the President of the Pontif ical Commission, who is subject to pontifical appointment and recall; the administrative structure of the Roman Catholic Church is known as the Roman Curia; its most important temporal components include the Secretariat of State and Council for Public Affairs (which handles Vatican d^:plomacy) and the Prefecture of Economic Affairs; the College of Cardinals act as chief papal advisers

Government leader: JOHN PAUL 11, Supreme Pontiff (Karol WOJTYLA, elected Pope 16 October 1978)

Suffrage: limited to cardinals less than 80 years old

Elections: Supreme Pontiff elected for life by College of Cardinals

Communists: none known

Other political or pressure groups: none (exclusive of influence exercised by other church officers in universal Roman Catholic Church)

Member: 1AFA, INTELSAT, ITU, IWC— International Wheat Council, UPU, WIPO, WTO; permanent observer status at F AO, OAS, UN, and UNESCO

NOTE: The information regarding Vatican City on this page is re-published from the 1986 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Vatican City 1986 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Vatican City 1986 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.