Vatican City, May 6, 2016 / 13:57 pm
Every year on the Anniversary of the 1527 Sack of Rome, the new recruits for the Pontifical Swiss Guard swear an oath to protect and defend the Pope, with their lives if necessary. This year 23 young men joined their peers and predecessors in making that oath.
"You are witnesses of Christ – here in Rome, in your homeland of Switzerland and wherever you go," Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, told the new guards May 6.
Each year before their official swearing-in Cardinal Parolin celebrates an early-morning Mass for the new guards in St. Peter's Basilica.
He told the guards that in a world that desperately wants light but "often doesn't have the courage to welcome it," their commitment is an example for their peers, "who are hungry for meaning and fullness."