Recently Pope Francis commented on the heightened threats to security in the Vatican following the influx of unregistered immigrants to Europe.
“I recognize that, nowadays, border safety conditions are not what they once were,” Pope Francis said. “The truth is that just 400 kilometres from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true.”
The Pope made this comment in a recent interview with a Portuguese Radio station while commenting on the European refugee crisis and imploring parishes and not least empty convents and monasteries to open their doors to Syrian families with children; as has happened in Einsideln Monastery from AD 835, which is housing young fugitives from Eritrea.
No details have been given, but apparently the Pope is commenting upon the risk of terrorists hiding among the 350.000 refugees, which have surged into Europe in the first six months of 2015. Isis has, according to its propaganda, the eyes fixed squarely on St. Peter’s in Rome. Concern heightened in February 2015, when Isis beheaded 21 Christians on a beach in Libya while shouting, “Next time Rome”. In April Italian terrorism investigators arrested 18 suspects, which they claimed had planned an attack on the Vatican. A few months earlier Isis propaganda Magazine Dabiq ran a photo-shopped cover with the militant group’s flag flying above the obelisk in St. Peter’s square with the text: The Failed Crusade.
Sack of Rome 1527
This would of course not be the first time the Vatican was under siege. Famously it happened in 1527, when Charles V had run out of money to pay his mercenaries after the Battle of Pavia. His army then marched on Rome, hoping to detach the Pope from the league. Lutherans in its ranks boasted that they came with hemp halters to hang the cardinals and a silk one for the Pope. When Rome fell on 6 May 1527 the Duke of Bourbon was killed in the first assault, and discipline collapsed. In the following days the city was savagely pillaged before some control was restored. The population in Rome dropped from 55.000 to a meagre 10.000 and bodies were lying unburied in the streets.
At the time, when soldiers breached the wall, the pope was celebrating mass in the Sistine chapel. Almost the entire Swiss Guard was massacred while the Pope fled via the Pasetto di Borgo to Castel San Angelo, where he was under siege for six weeks.
During the pillage unfathomable riches were looted. To some extent the Vatican library was salvaged as the commander of the Imperial army set up his headquarters there. However, lead seals were melted down and used as bullets and parchment was torn up and used as fodder for the horses.
This time the life of the Pope was spared. He paid 400.000 golden ducats as ransom plus had to cede a significant part of his Italian dominions to the Emperor, and saved his life.
However, no amount of money is going to save the life of the present Pope if terrorists strike lucky. We live in a medialized world where publicity is everything. Next week Pope Francis travels to USA and one attack against his life has already been foiled.
Source:
Pope Francis speaks to Portugal’s Radio Renascença