What is the Holy See and why does it get a seat at the UN General Assembly?

Most people use "the Vatican," "the Holy See," and "the Catholic Church" as if they mean the same thing. They do not, and the distinction is the whole reason this seat at the UN makes sense.

The Holy See and Vatican City are two different things

The term "Holy See" refers to the supreme authority of the Pope as Bishop of Rome and head of the college of Bishops. It is the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. Think of it as the executive office, not the building.

Under international law and in practice, the Holy See has a legal personality that allows it to enter into treaties as the juridical equal of a state and to send and receive diplomatic representatives. That last part is the key: it can conduct diplomacy the way a country can.

Vatican City was created by the Lateran Treaty in 1929 to ensure the Catholic Church's independence from the control of other countries, and it is tiny, about one-eighth the size of Central Park. Vatican City is the physical or territorial base of the Holy See, almost a pedestal upon which it rests. It is the Holy See, however, which internationally represents Vatican City State.

Why it gets a seat at the UN

The Holy See is a nearly 2,000-year-old term that refers to the international sovereignty of the Pope, or leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Because it holds recognized sovereignty and conducts diplomacy, the UN treats it as a state-equivalent entity.

The Holy See is not a member of the United Nations, not having applied for membership, but was granted permanent observer state status on 6 April 1964. It enjoys, by its own choice, the status of Permanent Observer rather than of a full member. This is due primarily to the desire of the Holy See to maintain absolute neutrality in specific political problems.

The UN General Assembly has granted observer status to two non-member states, the Holy See and the State of Palestine, as well as many international organizations and other entities, to enable them to participate in the work of the General Assembly, though with limitations.

What observer status actually means

Then, in 2004, that status was strengthened. On 1 July 2004, the Holy See gained all the rights of full membership except voting rights, submission of resolution proposals without co-sponsoring, and putting forward candidates.

This makes the Holy See the only religious entity represented among the 193 UN member states and Palestine, the other non-member observer state.

So when Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Holy See's Secretary of State, stepped to the podium at the 81st UN General Assembly as the sixth speaker of Watch Day 5, he was representing not a country in the ordinary sense but a 2,000-year-old institution that holds a singular legal status, a sovereign government whose territory is a walled enclave smaller than many city neighborhoods, but whose reach, through 1.3 billion Catholics and diplomatic ties with governments around the world, is as global as it gets.