Popesicles of Power

No really...who owns the world?

Apr 27, 2025

Pope Francis I, the literal and figurative King of the World, has died (again). His death was finally revealed on Easter Monday, either to imply a deep relationship between his life and the Church’s calendar in preparation of beatification, or to capitalize on the annual media focus on the Vatican during the Easter season. Your coin, you call it.

Public Relations (PR) is the narradigm game.

The Roman Church is the richest, most powerful entity in the world. Its inventory of real estate, priceless artworks, ancient cathedrals, unequalled document collection, and financial holdings alone represent the largest financial center in the known universe.

Few people realize that every electronic payment or transfer must have a counter-party to guarantee the transaction—even for the fraction of a second it takes to execute. The Vatican is the primary entity, among a handful, that provide that service to the tune of trillions of “dollars” per day (see Knights Templar legacy). This is the source of power for the SWIFT and other systems in the financial world.

I stated that the pope is the literal and figurative King of the World, which is true. Enter the concept of “eminent domain”. Eminent domain is the legal principle that allows a “competent authority” to compel the sale or transfer of private property for collective use, usually in exchange for just compensation. It’s the legal equivalent of saying: “Nice land you’ve got there—shame if we needed to build a motorway.”

Eminent domain is a “positive assertion at law”. A positive assertion at law is a formal, unequivocal claim of a right, authority, or legal status, made in a manner that expects to be recognized and enforced by legal institutions. Think of it as planting a legal flag and saying, “This is mine, this is valid, and this stands unless or until overturned by a higher authority.”

In 1302, Pope Boniface VIII issued a positive assertion of law claiming the Vatican’s eminent domain over the entire Earth, all creatures on/in/over it, and the entire spiritual and temporal realm. Since the Vatican recognizes only God Himself as a Superior Authority, and so far as I know, God hasn’t dropped in to gainsay the Vatican, it legally owns the world (and all of us), to be held in trust until the Second Coming of Christ, and the Vatican reserves the right to interpret when Christ has come in all His glory. Tidy bit of legal circular reasoning.

The Age of Exploration, recently renamed as the Age of Colonialism, was literally the Vatican sending out scouts to survey, classify, categorize, and catalog its possessions. It was a mission to map and plant flags in every strip of dry land, oh and that gold those native subhumans are holding? Yeah, that’s ours too.

Boniface VIII did all this with a Papal Bull called Unam Sanctam, a document that positively asserts absolute ownership of everything and supremacy over all Earthly powers (authorities). Since the Vatican has determined that no “higher authority” has contested the claim, it is still in full effect and authority. It sits at the root of all European legal systems, and international law (Law of the Seas or Admiralty).

Unam Sanctam was Boniface VIII’s audacious spiritual land grab disguised as theology. It wasn’t so much a doctrinal bull as a papal cannon shot: “We declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.” Subtle, it was not.

While the document is draped in the robes of spiritual authority, its real thrust is raw jurisdictional dominion. In fact, we might see it as a kind of eminent domain—not over property, but over souls. Boniface asserts not just a right, but an obligation, to rule: a positive assertion at law, in effect saying that God Himself has granted the Pope supreme title over every human being’s spiritual destiny, and by extension, a veto over temporal power.

To translate this into the language of modern jurisprudence: imagine the Pope declaring he holds fee simple absolute over the entirety of human conscience, with every monarch and magistrate merely tenants-at-will. That’s the level of ownership Boniface claimed. And like any good claim of eminent domain, it was not open to negotiation. There was no appeals court above the Pope — only eternal damnation below.

Fast-forward to the present, and the recent death of Pope Francis I (again, hypothetically — or perhaps soon-to-be-fulfilled, depending on your read of Vatican politics). Francis, ever the reformer, softened the tone but never relinquished the office’s claim to universal jurisdiction. He just sold it with better PR. Where Boniface roared, Francis reasoned — but the assertion remained: Rome leads, others follow.

As the Church prepares to elect a successor, the old ghost of Unam Sanctam stirs. The College of Cardinals, cloaked in red but thinking in strategy, must decide whether to affirm or diminish that ancient claim. Should the Pope continue to assert eminent domain over global moral and political authority — from climate change to artificial intelligence ethics — or retreat to being the Bishop of Rome with a really big Twitter following?

Legally speaking, Unam Sanctam has no standing in secular courts — as far as I know, no lawyer has cited it in quite some time — but its structure mimics a royal charter or a constitutional amendment, a unilateral declaration of authority with the expectation of enforcement. That expectation hasn't entirely died. Consider the Holy See's status at the UN, or its bilateral treaties with over 180 nations — soft power rooted in hard claims.

Unam Sanctam declares that temporal authority must be subject to spiritual authority. In effect, this is a legal claim to:

Overrule kings and emperors in matters of sin, morality, and law.
Serve as the final court of appeal in any dispute with a spiritual dimension — which in medieval Europe, meant everything.
Assert immunity for clergy from secular courts (a major flashpoint in medieval legal conflicts).

The Church no longer sends knights to enforce obedience, but it still claims to speak on behalf of a power higher than any nation-state. In a world increasingly allergic to universal claims — especially religious ones — that’s not just provocative; it’s revolutionary.

The Vatican’s agreement with the Chinese Communist Party several years ago remains secret, but one imagines the Papal Envoy placing a stack of papers on the table and noting Rome’s claims that have not been overturned.

The fact that presidents and prime ministers make a pilgrimage to the Vatican early in their terms is a subtle, but no less symbolic gesture of supplication. Unam Sanctam is buried deep in European legal systems, which in turn are buried deep in the legal systems of a vast majority of countries on the planet.

The concept of a legal fiction, a corporate entity created by judicial fiat, is itself rooted in the collective Body of the Church. In a form of secular baptism, a judge (by authority of Rome) can declare a “person” living or dead — incorporated (within the Body) or excommunicated (shunned by the Body).

So, what is Unam Sanctam today? Not law, not theology, but something trickier: a precedent. A precedent for popes to make sweeping assertions not just of spiritual influence, but of jurisdictional right. It’s the Vatican’s equivalent of planting a flag on every human heart and declaring, “This is under Rome’s care.”

The document may be seven centuries old, but don’t be fooled — its implications are still very much alive, waiting for the right pontiff to resurrect them. And in the coming conclave, some red-hatted cardinal might just be tempted to reach for that ancient sword.

=====

The cultural aperitif of the day is Conclave (2024), a creatively interesting, well-written and well-acted film that takes us into secret places and rituals with unusual directorial choices, excellent art direction, and a twist that I honestly didn’t see coming. Timely and well worth a watch. I prefer this to the older, yet still good Shoes of the Fishman (1968), in spite of the superior cast.

Burning ballots on the Far Side:

Telegram / Locals / TwiX
Rumble / BitChute / YouTube
Home Site / Old Blogger Site
E-book: Paper Golem: Corporate Personhood & the Legal Fiction
Contact Bernard Grover: bernard (at) radiofarside (dot) com

Radio Far Side, published (mostly) every Sun/Wed at 7a CST/7p WIB, is a labour of love. We don’t use a paywall, and we don’t sell stuff. We just create things to inform and entertain. But like any good busker on the digital mean streets, we put our hat down and if you feel inspired, drop a coin in to show your appreciation:

Buy Me A Coffee / PayPal Tips