This article lists diplomatic missions accredited to the Holy See, the government of the Catholic Church and the temporal ruler of the Vatican City. 88 countries currently maintain embassies to the Holy See. [1] [2]
Contents
- Diplomatic missions in Rome
- Embassies
- Other delegations or representations
- Gallery
- Accredited Embassies in Berlin, Germany
- Accredited Embassies in Brussels, Belgium
- Accredited Embassies in London, United Kingdom
- Accredited Embassies in Paris, France
- Accredited Embassies in Switzerland
- Accredited Embassies elsewhere
- Unverified
- Countries without formal diplomatic missions to Holy See
- References
- External links
The Vatican City State, over which the Holy See is sovereign, is the smallest independent entity in the world and its size renders any resident diplomatic community impractical. Therefore, all embassies to the Holy See are located in Rome, making the Vatican City one of only two sovereign states, the other being Liechtenstein, with no resident embassies located within its territory. This leads to the situation that the Embassy of Italy to the Holy See is based on its home territory, which is also the case for Andorra, Dominica, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Malta, and Singapore. This also means that the Embassy of the Republic of China (more commonly known as Taiwan) to the Holy See is located in Italy, which does not recognize the Republic of China.
Embassies to the Holy See usually do not maintain consular sections, allowing their sending countries's embassies to Italy to provide services to those holding passports issued by the Holy See. A notable exception is that of the Philippines, whose consular section caters to the Filipino pilgrims to Catholic pilgrimage sites in Italy and the Filipino members of religious congregations. [3]
