35 NEW SWISS GUARDS TO BE SWORN IN ON MAY 6

VATICAN CITY, MAY 5, 2000 (VIS) - This evening at 7, Pope John Paul will receive the new recruits of the Pontifical Swiss Guards with their parents and the married Swiss Guards with their families in the first of several events to commemorate the heroic deaths of 147 Swiss Guards who died defending Pope Clement VII in the Sack of Rome on May 6, 1527.

Tomorrow morning at 7:30 Cardinal Henri Schwery, bishop emeritus of Sion, Switzerland, will celebrate Mass for the Swiss Guards in the Hall of Blessings. At 8:45 a.m. there will be a commemorative act to honor the fallen guards and the bestowal of military decorations in the guard barracks in front of the Monument to the Fallen.
At 5 p.m. in the San Damaso Courtyard, 35 new Swiss Guards will be sworn in, following which President Adolf Ogi of Switzerland will give an address. Twenty of the new guards will take their oath in German, 12 in French, 2 in Italian and one in Ladin.

The Pontifical Swiss Guards, states a note from the commander's office, were founded by Pope Julius II in 1506. They are a company of 101 volunteers recruited from all of Switzerland's cantons whose main duty is the defense of the person and residence of the Supreme Pontiff. Their duties include surveillance of the entrances to Vatican City and serving as security and honor guards during religious and diplomatic papal functions. Several Swiss Guards always travel with the Holy Father when he makes apostolic trips abroad.

There are four officers (colonel, lieutenant colonel, major and captain, 1 chaplain, 26 non-commissioned officers and 70 halberdiers. The tour of duty lasts two years, though guards may sign up for additional two-year terms.

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