Pope Francis praises Swiss Guards’ patience with pilgrims
During the private audience on Saturday, Pope Francis also encouraged the guardsmen to start families.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Pope Francis praises Swiss Guards’ patience with pilgrims
During a private audience on Saturday, Pope Francis praised the Swiss Guards for their "great patience" with pilgrims who visit the Vatican. "It takes patience, and the guardsmen have it. And that is the beauty of them: they repeat, they explain – that is great patience", he said.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Papst lobt Geduld der Schweizergardisten mit Pilgern
Original
The work of the Swiss Guards has changed a lot over time, but their duty will always be to protect the Pope, said the pontiff during a private audience at the Foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard on Saturday. Welcoming the many pilgrims who visit from all parts of the world is also part of their duties.
During the private audience, Pope Francis also encouraged the guardsmen to start families. “I like it when the Guards get married,” he said. “I like it when they have children, when they have a family. That’s very important.”
Recently, the number of married Guardsmen with children has increased. Guardsmen must be single when they join the guard. They are only allowed to marry from the age of 25 and must have served for five years beforehand.
The Swiss Guards have been posted at the Vatican since 1506 and are responsible for the security of the Pope and his residence. The guardsmen in their traditional Renaissance uniforms also perform honorary duties during audiences, visits, masses and guard duty. Pope Francis increased the number of Swiss Guards from 110 to 135 in 2018.
Translated from German with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
One person consumes 4.8 megawatt hours of electricity
This content was published on
On average, the Swiss consume 4.8 megawatt hours of electricity per year. According to Velobiz.de, this is roughly equivalent to the amount generated by all 176 cyclists in the Tour de France during the entire race.
Outgoing ICRC chief in Ukraine defends neutrality amid war
This content was published on
Swiss national Jürg Eglin, outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine, reflects on his tenure.
Green party leader criticises government’s neo-liberal policy
This content was published on
The Green Party delegates' meeting opened on Saturday morning in Vicques (JU) with a speech by party president Lisa Mazzone. Mazzone took particular aim at the Federal Council's policy towards the United States.
Working on Sundays is detrimental to well-being, says Swiss study
This content was published on
A study by the University of Bern shows that working on Sundays is detrimental to well-being and particularly affects women.
Safra Sarasin private bank and former asset manager sentenced
This content was published on
The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has fined private bank J. Safra Sarasin CHF3.5 million for aggravated money laundering. A former bank employee received a six-month suspended prison sentence.
JPMorgan to pay CHF270 million to settle 1MDB claims
This content was published on
JPMorgan Chase has agreed to pay CHF270 million to the Malaysian government to settle all issues related to its role in the 1MDB financial scandal.
Famine confirmed in Gaza for first time, says UN-backed report
This content was published on
Famine has been declared in a northern part of the Gaza Strip, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system.
Zurich Airport ground handling staff to strike on Friday
This content was published on
Ground handling staff at Zurich Airport have announced a strike for Friday afternoon. According to a union, 200 jobs are at risk.
This content was published on
Philippe Lazzarini will step down as head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at the end of his term in March, he announced on Thursday.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.