VATICAN CITY: The new barracks of the Vatican Swiss guards will be built to accommodate female members if Pope Francis or his successors allow women to join the elite and colorfully dressed force.
Officials of the Swiss foundation that is raising the estimated $46 million (45 million Swiss Francs) to replace the current 150-year-old barracks signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vatican’s Secretary of State on Wednesday.
“The project includes single rooms with private bathrooms,” Riccardo Boscardin, an executive of the foundation, said in the courtyard of the barracks after the signing.
“There are two reasons. One is because COVID-19 hit when the project started and the second is the possibility of integrating women into the guard,” Boscardin said.
“But this decision is not ours, but exclusively that of the Vatican and the pope,” he said.
The force, whose principal mission is to protect the pope, has been exclusively male since its founding in 1506. The men are all Swiss citizens.
Francis, 85, has named women to a number of senior posts and management positions in the Vatican administration and in March he introduced a landmark new constitution that will allow any baptized lay Catholic, including women, to head most Vatican departments.
The Foundation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, which supports the guard financially, has already raised about 37 million francs and needs to raise about 7.5 million more, Boscardin told Reuters.
He said work was due to start in January, 2026 so the guards would not be displaced during the 2025 Holy Year, when millions of pilgrims are expected to visit the Vatican.
Because of building restrictions involving historic buildings, the side of the barracks that faces Rome, which surrounds the sovereign Vatican city-state, will be kept or rebuilt exactly as it now.
Constructing a totally new, ecologically friendly and energy-saving building, even if it resembles the old one externally, would cost much less than renovating the existing one, Boscardin said.
Vatican preparing for possibility of women Swiss Guards
https://arab.news/vphcd
Vatican preparing for possibility of women Swiss Guards
- The force, whose principal mission is to protect the pope, has been exclusively male since its founding in 1506
Trump Maritime Action Plan eyes levies on China goods to resurrect US shipbuilding
- US shipbuilding has shrunk since World War II and now severely lags China and other nations
- Endorsing the plan, Republican Senator Todd Young said: “It’s time to make American ships again”
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration on Friday released its plan to rebuild US shipbuilding and other maritime businesses, paid for in part by port fees on cargo delivered to the United States on ships made in China — levies the US and China agreed to pause for one year.
The Maritime Action Plan offers a road map for the revival of US shipbuilding, which has shrunk since World War Two and now severely lags China and other nations.
Coming in at more than 30 pages, the plan calls for establishing maritime prosperity zones to bolster investment, reforming workforce training and education, expanding the fleet of US-built and US-flagged commercial ships, establishing a dedicated funding stream through a Maritime Security Trust Fund and reducing regulations.
The Trump administration early last year announced plans to levy fees on China-linked ships to loosen the country’s grip on the global maritime industry and help pay for a US shipbuilding renaissance. The so-called Section 301 penalties followed a US probe that concluded China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate global shipping.
The fees, which sparked intense pushback from the global shipping industry and intensified tensions between the world’s two largest economies, hit on October 14 and were expected to generate an estimated $3.2 billion annually from Chinese-built vessels sailing to US ports.
But China retaliated with its own port fees on US-linked ships and the tit-for-tat fees disrupted global shipping. Soon after, the two sides struck a deal to put the levies on hold for 12 months.
On Friday, Shipyard owners, investors and the bipartisan sponsors of the Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act welcomed President Donald Trump’s maritime plan, which landed months later than hoped.
US Senator Todd Young, a Republican from Indiana, said there is substantial overlap between Trump’s vision and the plan in that proposed law, which he reintroduced last year with Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and other lawmakers.
Importantly, the SHIPS Act would establish a Maritime Security Trust Fund to reinvest port fee proceeds into maritime security and infrastructure projects such as shipyard revitalization. It has rare backing from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Washington, but has not made swift progress.
“The announcement today should serve as a wake-up call for Congress to act quickly on this bill in order to provide the legal authorities and resources necessary to make this plan a reality,” Young said. “It’s time to make American ships again.”
