Fascinating facts from a Vatican yearbook

L’Espresso provides a fascinating glimpse at a publication that few Catholics will ever see: the hefty account of “activity of the Holy See” - which, although technically “unofficial,” is published by the Secretariat of State. 

The annual volume provides an enormous number of facts, ranging from trivial to highly significant. 

Thus, for example, last year:

• The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith handled 440 cases of delicta graviora--the most serious canonical discipline cases—of which 404 involved clerical abuse of a minor.
• The Roman Rota issued final judgments in 179 annulment cases, and in a slim majority (94 cases) ruled against annulment.
• The Vatican city-state counted 594 citizens, while 238 citizens of other countries resided in the Vatican.
• The Vatican gendarmerie issued 96 traffic citations, but more importantly announced that the once-common phenomenon of pickpocket activity had been “stamped out” inside the Vatican.
• The Vatican Museums entered the rare group of such institutions welcoming more than 5 million visitors in a year.
• Vatican workers struggled successfully to combat a massive incursion of porcupines in some Roman catacombs, and a red-weevil infestation in palm trees outside the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.