By Matters India Reporter
New Delhi: Catholics in India have welcomed the decision of Swiss Guards to accommodate female soldiers.
The Swiss Guards, the world’s smallest army with just 140 soldiers, have faithfully protected popes for more than 500 years.
The army was formed in 1506. Recruits must be single, practicing Catholics of Swiss nationality, aged between 19 and 30.
They must serve for a minimum of two years, protecting the Pope and standing ramrod straight in sentry boxes outside St Peter’s Basilica.
They are now building new barracks within the Vatican to accommodate female soldiers.
“If we are talking about gender equality in any aspect of the Vatican administration, it is great progress,” says Montfort Brother Varghese Theckanath, a social activist based in Hyderabad, southern India.
“But they are talking about bringing the change in the Swiss Guards, the remnants of a mercenary military tradition that has been done away with a long time ago in the rest of Europe,” Brother Theckanath told Matters India.
According to him the “Guards” is “a telling example of how anachronistic the Church as an institution is. Swiss army in the Vatican fold is an affront to all that Jesus of Nazareth taught and lived. “It is high time to disband it, and replace it with symbols of peace, harmony, justice and love,” he asserted.
According to Virginia Saldanha, a lay woman theologian who had held several high Church posts in India and Asia, says she wonders why the Vatican requires the so called largely decorative army. “ Is it not a waste of money?” she asks.
“The young age, the unmarried status, service for just two years, etc. is a relic of the Empire and should be done away with especially with Pope Francis’ thrust towards a ‘Poor Church for the poor’.”
She wants the money spent on the Swiss Guards to be use on other more important outreach programs. “The very fact that the guard was annihilated in the Sack of Rome in the 16th century shows their incompetence to really protect. They only act like ‘watchmen’ at the gates of the Vatican, pretty like our society watchmen who will never really be able to fight back an aggressive intruder.”
She also says the system should be removed, instead of making women part of the “facade of protection”.
Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, another lay woman theologian, says women’s inclusion in the Swiss Guard is “long overdue and it will mean more jobs for women.”
At the same she wonders how long the discussion becomes a reality. “But frankly I don’t understand the purpose of the Swiss guards in today’s world where the Pope must surely be protected by the Italian police,” she added.
Sister Sujata Jena, a lawyer and social activist, also welcomed the move. The member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who had been to Rome, says she found them at every house she visited there. The guards gave her the impression that the Holy See is well protected.
Sister Noella D’Souza, a member of the Missionaries of Christ Jesus, questions criteria to become a Swiss Guard. “I understand they must be Catholics, but why practicing Catholics, why single, why Swiss?” she asks.
If the Swiss Guards open up to women, many other barriers also need to drop, she asserts.