As every year, the Swiss guard commemorated on Tuesday the massacre of May 6, 1527, when 147 soldiers of the Pope died in combat to protect Clément VII and his Vatican apartments.
With the opening of the conclave Wednesday, May 7, the members of the Swiss Guard make every effort to ensure the safety of the voters of the future sovereign pontiff, reports Vaticannews.
A hundred people crowd in the small courtyard of the Swiss guard barracks at the Vatican on Tuesday, May 6. Families or friends of the Swiss guards, they came for the swearing in for young people’s army recruits, traditionally on May 6, in memory of the 147 “brothers in arms” killed during the Rome bag in 1527. But this year, the ceremony will be faster: in the absence of a sovereign pontiff, impossible to receive the allegiances of young guards. Walking out, they arrive in the courtyard of the barracks, bordered by Passo, the passage which links the Saint-Ange castle to the apostolic palace.
To the sound of the drum, in two rows, they pay tributes to the civil and military authorities present.
-In front of the representatives of the Holy See, the Embassy of Switzerland and some bishops of the country, the commander Christoph Graf gives the usual speech, in memory of the heroic sacrifice of the elders of this small army. “By his example, Christ entrusted us, to us Christians and to all men of good will, a great responsibility and an important mission. In his image, we are called to defend human life and dignity, ”he says in front of the two rows of young guards in impeccable uniform.
But no disappointment for those who have sometimes been waiting for almost a year to take an oath, explains corporal Eliah Cinotti. “They immediately made themselves available, no one has flunched. They returned to the modality of service, of the sacrifice, ”he underlines.
Even in the absence of a sovereign pontiff, the some 130 members of the smallest army in the world continue their security mission, in addition to the ordinary service of various sentinel posts.
“Protecting the college of cardinals is part of one of the five missions of the guard,” said Corporal Cinotti. For more than six years, he has now lived his first conclave like many of his comrades. But there is no question of yielding to the feverishness that agitates the faithful and journalists on the other side of the Vatican walls. “Today, the guard is concentrated. Each guard has a mission and remains focused on giving the best of oneself so that this conclave goes in the best possible way, “says this spokesperson for the Swiss Guard.
