Despite an oath to give their lives defending the pope, three members of the Vatican’s fabled Swiss Guard have abandoned the small force due to refusal to comply with a recent mandate to possess either a COVID-19 vaccination certificate or the results of a negative COVID test within the past 48 hours in order to work in the Vatican City State.
The three soldiers, who had joined the guard last May, chose to leave rather than receive the vaccine, which is easily available throughout Italy and which the Vatican offered for free to all of its employees earlier this year.
Their decision was confirmed by the spokesman of the Swiss Guard, Urs Breitenmoser, to the Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve.
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