VATICAN CITY
BBC News
By James Reynolds
BBC News, Vatican City
Next to St Peter’s Basilica, two Swiss Guards stood underneath an arch. One carried a sword, the other a spear. The Vatican had evidently calculated that two guards familiar with medieval weaponry would be enough to deter a raid.
At the very least, they might be able to duel assailants into a standoff until reinforcements arrived.
The guards allowed us into the heart of Vatican City, for a trial that has gripped Italians for weeks.
We walked past the Casa Santa Marta, the anonymous-looking guesthouse which doubles as Pope Francis’s home. A single Swiss Guard stood at the front door. The Vatican’s tribunal building is in the same square.
“No mobile phones, no satellite phones, no transmitters,” a Vatican official joked – as if we might try to smuggle them in.
He led us towards two rows of plastic chairs at the back of a wood-panelled courtroom on the ground floor. The coat of arms of Pope Pius XI was engraved on to the ceiling, flanked by four chandeliers.
A crucifix hung on a panel behind the judges’ bench – a coincidental reminder for the devout that Jesus Christ was himself condemned by a questionable judicial verdict.
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