which were cut off by the loss of the temporal
dominion there is settled upon the Pope a permanent income to be paid
from the treasury of the state. For the uses of the Holy See--the
preservation and custody of the apostolic palaces, compensation and
pensions for guards and attaches, the keeping of the Vatican museums
and library, and any other needful purposes--there is reserved the sum
of 3,225,000 lire ($645,000) annually, to be "entered in the great
book of the public debt as a perpetual and inalienable income of the
Holy See."[566] The obligation thus assumed by the state may never be
repudiated, nor may the amount stipulated be reduced. Permanent
possession, furthermore, of the Vatican and Lateran palaces, with all
buildings, museums, libraries, gardens, and lands appertaining thereto
(including the church of St. Peter's), together with the villa at
Castel Gandolfo, is expressly guaranteed, and it is stipulated, not
only that these properties shall be exempt from all taxation and
charges and from seizure for public purposes, but that, except with
papal permission, no public official or agent in the performance of
his public duties shall so much as enter the papal palaces or grounds,
or any place where there may be in session at any time a conclave or
ecumenical council. During a vacancy of the pontifical chair no
judicial or political functionary may, on any pretext, invade the (p. 389)
personal liberty of the cardinals, and the Government engages
specifically to see to it that conclaves and ecumenical councils shall
not be molested by external disorder.

[Footnote 565: Art. 3. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 16.]

[Footnote 566: Art. 4. Ibid., 17.]

*428. Papal Freedom in the Exercise of Spiritual Functions.*--In the
exercises of spiritual functions the independence of the Holy See is
fully secured. The Pope may correspond freely with the bishops and
with "the whole Catholic world," without interference from the
Government.[567] Papers, documents, books, and registers deposited in
pontifical offices or in congregations of an exclusively spiritual
character are exempt from all legal processes of visit, search, or
sequestration, and ecclesiastics may not be called to account by the
civil authorities for taking part officially in the promulgation of
any act pertaining to the spiritual ministry of the Holy See. To
facilitate the administration of papal aff