The British Royals Message Board: Re: A question of citizenship

FYI: Damian at least provided a plausible answer that directly addressed the papal situation. My posts all stand - and unlike yours they are not pathetic personal remarks but thank you for not responding further with the predictable mindless insults and nonsense about Maxima.

Previous Message

Read Damian's question again and than read your own post and go and ask your parents to punish you for not getting any part of their attempts to make you a half way decent human being.

And in future refrain from replying my post please! This is the last time I ever answer you.

Previous Message

And what it the point of your bizarre comparison? This is about the POPE's dual citizenship, neither of which are either "Argentinian" NOR "Dutch". We'll leave aside the fact that a consort doesn't matter at all in this issue.

Previous Message

Pope Francis was Argentinian and that is a nationality that once you have it is yours for life. Queen Maxima of the Netherlands has dual citizenship of The Netherlands and Argentina because she does not have the option to give up her Argentinian nationality. So neither was pope Francis.

Im not sure how it was for John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Most popes before that were Italian so that may not have been that much of an issue.

Previous Message

Personally I don't see how an independent Head of State such as the Pope couold possibly be a citizen or subject of another country. I wonder how this issue was resolved with previous popes who were presumably citizens of their own countries at the time of their election.

Previous Message

What if a British Catholic got elected to and accepted the papacy? Could he still remain a legal citizen of the United Kingdom, or would he forfeit his status? If forfeiture was not automatic, would he nevertheless be obliged to renounce his British citizenship?

WOULD it actually be possible to remain a subject of the reigning monarch, while at the same time being the sovereign of a foreign state -- i.e. Vatican City?

The reason for my asking is the sticky legal question that has just risen around the recent papal conclave, where an American cardinal got elected as the supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church. Pope Leo XIV has not forfeited his Peruvian citizenship; but his U.S. citizenship appears to be in jeopardy. Either he has automatically forfeited it or he will be pressured to renounce it.