ROME, Italy — Three members of the fabled Swiss Guard have quit their jobs in the face of the Vatican’s new coronavirus vaccine mandate.
Lieutenant Urs Breitenmoser, spokesman for the Swiss Guard, confirmed to the Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve the three soldiers had departed “voluntarily” when confronted with the obligation to be vaccinated.
Three others who had resisted vaccination have now submitted to the requirement and are temporarily suspended from their duties until the end of the vaccination cycle, Breitenmoser said.
The tiny sovereign state of the Vatican currently has some of the most extreme coronavirus restrictions in the world.
As of October 1, no one is permitted to enter the Vatican City State without presenting a coronavirus Green Pass, by order of Pope Francis, and everyone must wear a mask at all times, even out of doors.
Visitors have their Covid-19 certificates scanned before entering the Vatican Museums in the Vatican on August 6, 2021, as Italy made the Green Pass, which is an extension of the EU’s digital Covid certificate, required from today to enter cinemas, museums and indoor sports venues, or eat indoors at restaurants. (Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)
The Green Pass can be obtained by showing proof of vaccination against the coronavirus, demonstrating recovery from the coronavirus, or by showing a negative rapid antigen or PCR test, the Vatican ordinance stated.
Vatican employees who opt to be regularly tested rather than vaccinated must cover the expense themselves, which runs about $25 every 48 hours.
In the case of the Swiss Guard, however, testing was deemed insufficient and a blanket vaccine mandate was imposed. Those who refuse the vaccine can no longer remain active in the corps.
The Vatican decree also declared that the Green Pass mandate extends to the Vatican’s extraterritorial properties stipulated by the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which include Vatican-owned churches throughout Italy.
The pope himself instructed the Governorate of Vatican City State to issue the mandate in order “to prevent, control, and combat the public health emergency” in Vatican territory.
“These provisions apply to citizens and residents of the State, personnel in service of any sort of the Governorate of the State of Vatican City and of the various bodies of the Roman Curia and the institutions connected to it, to all visitors and users of services,” the decree stipulates.
The only exception to the Vatican ordinance are those who participate in liturgical celebrations, but the exception lasts only “for the time strictly necessary for the performance of the rite,” after which they must leave.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office has insisted that from a moral standpoint reception of the coronavirus vaccine must be “voluntary,” but Pope Francis said he thinks “ethically everyone should take the vaccine” and that refusing the vaccine manifests “suicidal denialism.”
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