{"id":2886,"date":"2006-01-24T08:33:57","date_gmt":"2006-01-24T13:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=2886"},"modified":"2006-01-24T09:14:19","modified_gmt":"2006-01-24T14:14:19","slug":"guarding_the_po","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/01\/24\/guarding_the_po\/","title":{"rendered":"Guarding the Pope"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although there is no desi pope<\/a>, there is one desi member of the Swiss Guard<\/a>. Dhani Bachmann was sworn in as the first ever non-white Swiss guard<\/strong> four years ago. <\/a>Private Bachmann was adopted by a Swiss family at 5 and speaks only German, which helps explain how he could join an elite group whose members are comprised solely of Catholic Swiss<\/a>, mainly recruited from a handful of small villages. <\/p>\n\n

At the time, one news source snarkily reported the story in the following way:<\/p>\n\n

First Black Man Ever To Protect The Pope

For the first time in the more than 500 year history of the Swiss Guards, the group of 200 soldiers who protect the Pope in Rome, a non white man has been allowed to take his place in their ranks. Private Dhani Bachmann was born in India but adopted by a Swiss family and taken to live there when he was 5. He therefore is eligible to join the guards as he is Swiss. He is now apparently trying to learn Italian so that he can explain to people in Rome why he is not white<\/strong>. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

The Swiss Guard are the Pope’s private army<\/strong>, founded 500 years ago on January 22nd, 1506. They had their origins in the “Swiss mercenary detachments<\/a> that served as bodyguards and ceremonial guards at foreign European courts from the late 15th century on” and once guarded the Royalty of France and Austria as well. Soon after they were founded, in 1527, “147 of the 189 Guards<\/a>, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Charles V during the Sack of Rome.”<\/p>\n\n

Today, they are half their original size, with only 100 soldiers<\/a>. After the 1981 attempt to assasinate Pope John Paul, their non-ceremonial duties and training have been beefed up; their training involves unarmed combat and the use of modern weaponry in addition to the traditional Halberd. Still, they’re best known for their colorful uniforms<\/strong> which, according to legend were first designed by Michaelangelo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

This job combines tradition and religious service in the short term with the potential to make a lot of money in the long term – how typically Swiss!<\/p>\n\n

Swiss Guards sign on for a minimum of two years. Many leave the Pope’s military service for lucrative jobs with some of the world’s best-known security services and banks. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td><\/tr>\n
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Dhani Bachmann being sworn in or Vinod making a gang sign?<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/table>\n\n

<\/center><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Although there is no desi pope, there is one desi member of the Swiss Guard. Dhani Bachmann was sworn in as the first ever non-white Swiss guard four years ago. Private Bachmann was adopted by a Swiss family at 5 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}