“I appreciate that the guards get married, that they have children,” declared Pope Francis on January 18, 2025. He received the members of the Council of the Foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.
The Pontifical Swiss Guard Foundation, a financial support structure created in 2000, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. In front of his members who came on pilgrimage to Rome, the pope paid tribute to the “faithful service” of the guards ensuring his personal protection and surveillance of the entrances to the Vatican. Improvising a few words, he praised in particular their “patience” in “welcoming the many pilgrims from all over the world”. “That’s what’s beautiful about them: they repeat, they explain… Very great patience,” he congratulated them.
Francis welcomed the support of the Swiss foundation, which subsidizes the Guard to the tune of 745,000 euros each year, particularly for the education and training of the children of these soldiers. “This is all the more relevant as the number of married guards with children has increased,” the pontiff stressed.
“I appreciate that the guards get married, that they have children, that they start a family,” the pope then confided spontaneously. In 2018, he celebrated the wedding of a Swiss Guard and an employee of the Vatican Museums.
Twenty children of Swiss guards
Swiss Guards can marry after five years of service. According to Guard figures, in 2023, 24 of them were married and there were 20 children of guards. A figure up compared to 2019, when the care consisted of 18 families and 18 children. These families of guards on duty benefit from Vatican citizenship.
-In addition to providing financial assistance to improve the equipment of the smallest army in the world – 135 men – the foundation supports the return of guards leaving their service and returning to Switzerland. “I am in contact with some of them […]. They sometimes call me on the phone, they send me something, when they go to Rome they visit me,” the Argentine pontiff revealed during this audience. Since 2016, another foundation has been created to finance the colossal renovation work on the Guard barracks, which should begin in 2026. (cath.ch/imedia/ak/rz)
© Catholic Media Center Cath-Info, 01/19/2025
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