Although the Franciscan Order had always denied having wartime ties to the Ustashe regime in Croatia, the Order had been accused of acting as the “facilitators and middlemen in moving the contents of the Ustashe Treasury from Croatia to Austria, Italy and finally South America after the war. During the Nazi occupation of Bosnia, the Franciscans were closely involved with the Ustashe regime at a location not far from Medjugorje in Bosnia,” site of a shrine where the Virgin Mary was said to appear.

In a step that dismayed victims of the Ustashe, Pope John Paul II visited Croatia in October 1998 “to announce the beatification of Cardinal Stepinac, elevating him to the last step before a declaration of sainthood. Serbs and others who recalled that Stepinac had given his blessing to Ustashe winced as 400,000 of the faithful gathered at Croatia’s main shrine to the Virgin Mary to hear John Paul II hail Stepinac “as a hero” for his “resistance to Communism and his refusal to separate the Croatian church from the Vatican.”

Never charged with war crimes or formally accused of funneling the purloined treasure into the Vatican bank, Father Kunoslav Draganovic, who came to be known as “the Golden Priest,” spent several years after the war engaged in activities in the Balkans that ranged from dubious to nefarious and returned to Yugoslavia, where he died in 1983.

A Fit of Madness

In a mystery with three people dead, a supposedly fake suicide note, conflicts over the crime scene and autopsies, disputed bullets, whispers about connections to Opus Dei, and charges of drug use in the Vatican that was worthy of a best-selling mystery novel or Hollywood thriller, the commander of Pope John Paul II’s personal security force, the Swiss Guards, and his wife were shot to death on May 4, 1998, by a dashingly handsome young officer, who then turned the gun on himself.

The Holy See insisted that the killer was bitter at having been passed over for a medal. Another explanation was that the commander and the officer had been gay lovers. A third theory posited that the commander was killed after Vatican officials discovered that he had been a spy for the East German Stasi secret police in the 1980s. Conspiracy theorists and believers that The Da Vinci Code rang true, invoked the specter of a sinister plot by Opus Dei. Never in the 500-year history of the Swiss Guards had their been a whiff of scandal.

Clad in “red-yellow-and-blue tunics, plumed conquistador-style helmets, and gleaming 7-foot medieval halberds-a combined spear and battle-ax-the Swiss Guards were founded by Pope Julius II in 1506.” To join the guards, a man must be a Swiss national, unmarried, a Catholic, of legitimate birth, under the age of thirty, have military training, at least five feet nine or taller, healthy, and with no bodily disfigurements. “Whoever is not eligible for military service in Switzerland is likewise refused admission into the Guards.” He must present “a certificate from his home,…baptismal certificate, and testimonial as to character, all signed by the authorities of his parish. After a year of good conduct, the cost of the journey to Rome is refunded… Those who wish to retire from the Guards may do so after giving three months’ notice. After eighteen years’ service each member of the Guards is entitled to a pension for life amounting to one half of his pay, after twenty years to a pension amounting to two thirds of his pay, after twenty-five years to five sixths of his pay, and after thirty years to his full pay.”

Inducted to serve two-year renewable enlistments, recruits swear to lay down their life, if necessary, in defense of the supreme pontiff. They declared, “I swear I will faithfully, loyally and honorably serve the supreme pontiff [name of Pope] and his legitimate successors and also dedicate myself to them with all my strength, sacrificing if necessary also my life to defend them. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the See is vacant. Furthermore, I promise to the commanding captain and my other superiors, respect, fidelity and obedience. This I swear! May God and our holy patrons assist me!”

The one hundred Swiss Guards have been the only armed corps at the Vatican since Pope Paul VI dissolved three other units: the Papal Gendarmes, the Pontifical Noble Guard, and the Palatine Guard of Honor in 1970. The Swiss Guard is the remnant of the military corps that popes had at their disposal from the Middle Ages until the mid-nineteenth century, when they controlled a large part of central Italy. Swiss Guards officially assumed papal defense duties “when Pope Julius II, known as the warrior pope, recognized that he needed special protection. [H]e turned to well-known and tactically well-trained forces from Switzerland ” and asked for a contingent of Swiss soldiers who would protect him and his palace. In December of that year, 150 Swiss soldiers began their march to Rome. They entered the eternal city on January 21, 1506, and set up quarters in the pope’s stables. The next day, they were blessed by Julius. He bestowed on them the title “Defenders of the Church’s Freedom.”

Twenty-one years later, on May 6, 1527, 147 out of 189 guardsmen were killed in a defensive stance that allowed Pope Clement VII to escape attacking Spanish forces. The only blemish on the guards’ record occurred in 1798. When Napoleon occupied Rome, he captured and deported Pope Pius VI, then disbanded the papal guard. Other nonpapal Swiss Guard units noted for their combat prowess were kept and integrated within the ranks of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. After Hitler’s troops entered Rome in World War II, Swiss Guardsmen donned gray uniforms and took up positions behind machine guns and mortars. Vastly outnumbered, they were prepared to sacrifice their lives for Pius XII, but by Hitler’s order, the Germans did not move against the Vatican.

“Today a pope’s temporal authority extends over just the 108-acre enclave of Vatican City… The Swiss Guards now perform ceremonial functions but also stand guard duty outside the papal apartments and at the Vatican ’s four main entrances. Guards in plain clothes accompany the pope on his travels…and cooperate with other church security forces and police…to ensure the pope’s protection. These days, the guards carry tear gas for crowd control and train weekly with machine pistols and handguns at an Italian army firing range.” The force usually consists of four officers, twenty-three noncommissioned officers, seventy halberdiers (lance carriers), two drummers, and a chaplain, all with an equivalent Italian army rank. Although they are fully trained and equipped in modern weaponry and tactics, they also receive instructions in using the sword and halberd.

“Their official dress uniform was altered in 1915. It is a jumpsuit which has a distinctly Renaissance appearance. A popular misconception is that these dress uniforms were designed by Michelangelo. The working uniform is more functional, consisting of blue coveralls and black beret. Both dress and working uniforms are worn by the Guardsmen when on duty in Vatican City.”

“All the officers carry out guard duties every day as well as on occasions such as Masses, audiences, and receptions… The officers and the Sergeant Major generally wear civilian clothes when on duty… The chaplain has the equivalent title of an army lieutenant colonel.” “The Guard quarters consist of two narrow parallel buildings which with the Sistine Palace and the Torrione di Niccolò V form two courts. The inner court is adjacent to the palace, in the other is a gate leading directly to the city.” “The corps has its own chapel, SS Martino e Sebastiano, built by Pius V in 1568.”

A member of the Swiss Guard on May 4, 1989, Jacques-Antoine Fierz, wrote in Newsweek magazine, “It takes a special sort of man to leave behind the tranquil life of the Swiss cantons for a barracks in a foreign land. After all, it’s not a job full of material rewards. The hours are long-sixty or seventy a week when there are no extraordinary duties. The pay is merely 1.8 million lire ($1,000) a month-far less than an Italian soldier would earn. It’s not easy to stand like a statue for many hours holding a heavy pike. And we’re all normal guys who carry on like all other young men our age. We go out with friends in the neighborhood, have a few drinks at a pub with our comrades and swap work stories. Some of us even have girlfriends. To be a soldier of the pope does not imply a vow of celibacy, and it’s not rare for a Guardsman to come home with a wife he met in Rome. But there is very little free time, and bed check is at midnight every day.”