inside and exclusive All the Pope's Gentlemen

The body of Pope John Paul II makes its way through the Vatican on April 4, 2005, Vatican City, held aloft by members of the Pope's Gentlemen, who traditionally carry a pope's bier at his funeral.
Enjoy Italy: All the Pope's Gentlemen
ROME, Italy — When in 1994 President Bill Clinton went to pay a visit to Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, he met first with a group of elegantly dressed old men. They greeted the leader of the free world in one of the "anticamere" — ante-chambers — of the Apostolic Palace, wearing black coat-tails and ornate golden collars with a heraldic emblem.

Veteran Vatican correspondents recall that Clinton, unsure of whom he was facing, nevertheless started talking politely with the members of the group. The conversation went on for nearly 10 minutes before his aides were able to intervene and remind him that he had more pressing meetings on schedule.

The men Clinton met were members of one of the most exclusive clubs on the planet, known as the Gentlemen of His Holiness — or the Pope's Gentlemen.

The latest list of their ranks, published in 2009, sets their number worldwide at 147. Most of them (114) are Italians, and they come from Roman families considered to be among the noblest and most ancient — the Torlonia, the Corsini, the Borghese. These families have been serving popes for centuries, previously going under the name Secret Chamberlains of the Sword and Cape. Their task, originally, was to attend the pope's meals together with other select Monsignors and Chapelains, forming the so-called Papal Family.

But such a relic from the centuries when the papacy was a monarchy which actually ruled over most of central Italy seemed anachronistic at the time of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s. And so Pope Paul VI decided to reform the Papal Family and turned the Secret Chamberlains in the more soberly named Papal Gentlemen.


Their duties today mostly consist of escorting diplomats and dignitaries during audiences with the pope or official ceremonies at the Vatican. Called upon by the prefecture of the Papal Household, they must come to Rome and be ready for service for two weeks every year. They also have to carry the pope's bier at his funeral.

Paul VI's reform also opened the Gentlemen's ranks, stating that beyond nobility, everyone who had distinguished himself “for the good of souls and the glory of the name of the Lord” could be called to join the exclusive club.

In fact, it has been mostly donors and businessmen with close ties to the Holy See or to some key cardinal to receive the honor — bestowed with an hand-written "biglietto" from the Vatican Secretariat of State — together with laymen who served the Catholic Church for decades.

One of them is 79-year-old Mario Agnes, who became a Gentleman in 2007 after editing for 25 years the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. “It's a gift, an act of kindness the Holy Father wanted to do toward me,” he said about the appointment, shying away from giving to much importance to it.

Still, some who have received the honor have used it to boast about their special connection to the Vatican and the pope himself — just as they were involved in some less-than-transparent affairs. At a time when the papacy is already shaken by sex-abuse scandal, they have brought some unwanted publicity to the church.

The most recent case is that of Angelo Balducci, Papal Gentleman since 1985.
Coppied by http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/italy/100727/all-the-popes-gentlemen