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I see. You guys think that the Swiss Guard’s only function is to pose with that colorful uniforms that strikes fear in no one so the tourists can take pictures and make fun of them on Instagram.Dude, you don’t know how wrong you are.Oh God, here it comes another group of old ladies.First things first: the guards use modern equipment, although you may not notice it. They are armed with modern pistols and submachine guns, in addition to, of course, their gorgeous halberds and, on solemn occasions, armour and morrion.One must not forget that the Vatican’s Swiss Guard is a real military corps with the real mission of looking after the Pope’s safety and guarding the Vatican. They have full military training (and not only in Halberd Fighting) and are quite a capable force.Swiss Guards formation, with their (not) ceremonial halberds.Although today it has only a handful of troops, in the past, it was part of an authentic army and, as such, it took part in various military actions in defence of the interests of the Catholic Church.The origin of this institution can be traced back to the beginning of the 16th century. At that time, the Swiss mercenaries constituted the European warrior elite, with the most skilled and capable fighters. So Pope Sixtus IV signed a defensive alliance with the Swiss Confederation to use their troops to help resolve the territorial conflicts inside an Italy that still had hundreds of years to be united.Conclave of Pius V, with Swiss Guard guarding the entrance, Codex Maggi, 1578Their baptism of fire itself, already as a permanent body, came on May 6, 1527. The Imperial Army of Charles V’s marched to carry the infamous Sack of Rome. At the occasion, German Landsknechts, Spanish soldiers and Italian mercenaries entered the city of Rome, killing, stealing and raping without restraint. Arriving in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, the attackers tried to enter by force. The Swiss then formed a circle around the pontiff, protecting his escape towards the interior of the temple, where there was the entrance to Pasetto di Borgo, a medieval passageway almost a kilometre long that led to the Castle of Sant’ Angelo. The Pope managed to escape and take refuge, while his guards covered his retreat with their very lives.The Imperial Army, vastly outnumbering the defenders, ended defeating the Swiss Guards. The last resistance was offered on the left side of the basilica, near the Teutonic Cemetery: there, 147 of the 189 who fought, died trying to protect the Pope.The sack of Rome in 1527, by Johannes Lingelbach,In 1548, Paul III reorganized the Swiss Guard, increasing it to 225 troops. Years later, Pope Pius V sent them as reinforcement to the Holy Christian League against the Turks. On October 7, 1571, they re-entered combat. But this time, however, they were victorious.From then on, a prolonged period of calm was imposed that lasted centuries, until tensions soared again in 1870. At the time, the Vatican was involved in the process of unification of Italy, during which the Papal State lost much of its territory, ending surrounded by hostile troops. The Swiss Guard was ready for defense along with its French allies but, at the same time, Napoleon III was defeated in Sedan, leaving the Pope by himself.In the end, Rome passed into the hands of Garibaldi and the Vatican troops were dissolved. The Swiss Guard would never engage in combat again.Uniform and armour style of when they saw action for the last time.The Swiss Guard is formed only by Swiss Catholics, between 19 and 30 years old, single, over 1.74 high and with experience in the Swiss Armed Forces.Member of the Swiss Guard taking the oath on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.

When California was part of Spanish territory, a string of missions were founded by Franciscan friars. Mission Santa Clara was founded in 1777. It was named for St Clare, an early follower of St Francis. The city is named for the Mission.

Why on earth would I want to use arguments “to make someone Catholic”? The usual answer, I suppose, would be “for the salvation of their eternal soul”. That’s not a bad answer, but it doesn’t really go far enough.Before I go on, I want to stress one point: theology, the Code of Canon Law, the entire Magisterium (teaching authority of the Church) are for the good of us humans, and are binding on us. God is not bound by our laws. God is sovereign and acts in accordance with His will.I’ll come back to that point, but first I’d like to talk about salvation. The basic Catholic teaching is that “extra Ecclesiam nulla salus”, there is no salvation outside the Church. I don’t know the first time it was cited, but the principle goes back at least to St. Cyprian of Carthage[1]in the third century.This venerable teaching was formally repeated as recently as 1992, with the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church[2], but now we have explanations—we might even say “refinements”—that help us understand what it means for us today. (The bare outline of the explanation is in paragraphs 846–848 of the Catechism.[3])Those brief lines mean that if someone has never heard the good news of Jesus Christ, they are not held culpable for not accepting it. (It sounds obvious now, but was not so in earlier periods.)In the year 2000, the Church published a declaration “on the unicity and salvific universality of Jesus Christ and the Church”, known as Dominus Iesus ( the Lord Jesus)[4]. This declaration clarified that yes, there is no salvation outside the Church, but also reminded us that we are not privy to the ways of God. We should not sit back and assume, “Well, she’s a good person, so it doesn’t matter if she is a member of the Body of Christ”—we have to make the evangelic efforts that are appropriate to our state of life—but we can rest assured that God is great.We are encouraged to keep two ideas, a little different from one another but both true, in mind:“it is necessary to keep these two truths together, namely, the real possibility of salvation in Christ for all mankind and the necessity of the Church for this salvation”.andFor those who are not formally and visibly members of the Church, “salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally part of the Church, but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit”;81 it has a relationship with the Church, which “according to the plan of the Father, has her origin in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit”.82(The two quotations immediately above are from Dominus Iesus, paragraph 20, and the numbered notes are from that document, linked in footnote 4.)These ideas are hard to hold in our head, so I want to repeat something I said at the beginning: God is not bound by our laws. God is sovereign and acts in accordance with His will.In practice, this means that I do not have look for arguments (even in the philosophical sense of the word) to “make someone Catholic”. I have to live the best life I can as a Catholic, look for opportunities to explain what I believe, and prepare myself to explain it well.All the rest I can safely leave to the Holy Spirit.Footnotes[1] St. Cyprian, Bishop, Martyr[2] Frequently Asked Questions about the Catechism of the Catholic Church[3] Catechism of the Catholic Church[4] Dominus Iesus