How The Pope Secretly Travels
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NewsTranscript
00:00From fighter jets flying beside his plane, to armored popemobiles transported ahead in cargo
00:05aircraft, to kings offering up their own jets, the Pope's travels can look more like a royal
00:09operation than a religious pilgrimage. The bill can reach tens of millions, yet when the Vatican
00:14needs to move him without anyone noticing, it starts with something surprisingly ordinary,
00:18the team that lands first. Every trip a Pope takes abroad starts a long time before anyone
00:23sees him wave. It starts with paperwork. The Vatican needs two invitations, one from the
00:28country's leader and one from its bishops, and only then does the real work begin. For Leo XIV's
00:34trip to Spain in 2026, that early planning ran 6 to 12 months, with one named Vatican trip organizer
00:41in charge of site visits, talks with the government, and security. Then comes the advance team. This is
00:46the group the public never sees. It is made up of people from the Pope's household, from the Vatican
00:51police, and from the Swiss guard. They fly out ahead of time and walk the ground he will walk. They
00:57do
00:57not go once. On earlier trips, the team made a first visit and then came back two or three more
01:02times.
01:03They walked every city on the list. They decided where he would ride in a closed car and where he
01:08would ride in the Popemobile. They even counted the steps he would have to climb. The man who ran trips
01:12for John Paul II described the same slow rhythm. A first scouting visit, a minute-by-minute program
01:18that the Pope signs. Logistics starting about six months out. Then, one month before, a final walk of the
01:24exact route, checking the bedrooms and the protocol. It still works that way. For Leo XIV's trip to
01:30France, the advance team landed in mid-July to finish the details with local police. The Pope
01:35arrived on 25 September. That is about 10 weeks, and it was the last pass, not the first. In mid
01:41-September,
01:42the team was still walking the 2.5-kilometer Paris route with the Swiss guards, only days before the
01:47street rehearsals. The work behind the scenes is huge. It means site visits, agreements, meetings,
01:53and then checking on the ground that everything asked for was actually done. By the end, the team
01:57has locked a full list. The run of the day, almost to the minute. Which car for which stretch of
02:02road?
02:03Where the snipers and cameras go? Which hospital room is held empty? Where the Pope sleeps? And what
02:08happens if he changes his mind? That last part is the one that keeps security awake. The Pope can still
02:13change the plan at the very last second, and he often does. So who actually guards him? Two Vatican
02:18forces travel with the Pope, and neither one is decoration. The first is the Gender Mary. This is
02:23the Vatican's real police force, with around 130 officers. They run an operations room that never
02:28closes. The cameras, the gates, and the link to Interpol. In 2008, they built their own tactical
02:34team, the Rapid Intervention Group, along with a bomb unit. That team was first trained at the FBI
02:39Academy, and later with Italian Special Forces, including the Army's elite 9th Parachute Assault Regiment,
02:45in 2018. About 20 officers have special anti-terror training, and some of them travel abroad with the
02:51Pope. The second force is the Swiss Guard. The bright uniforms are real, but so is the training. There
02:56are about 135 of them. Every recruit is a young Catholic Swiss man who has already finished military
03:02service back home, so they arrive as soldiers. On trips abroad, some travel in dress uniform for the
03:07ceremonies, and others travel in plain clothes, armed right next to the Pope. These two forces never
03:12work alone. The rule is simple. When a head of state visits a country, the host country is
03:17responsible for overall security. The Vatican brings the inner ring. The host brings everything else.
03:22In the United States, that means the Secret Service. When Francis visited in 2015, the Secret
03:27Service director flew to Rome with his two lead agents to see how the Vatican protects this Pope.
03:32Back home, dozens of agencies worked together, and immigration agents published their own report on
03:37helping secure the venues. In France, it means RAID, the elite police unit. For Leo XIV's 2026 visit to
03:44Lourdes, the list included RAID, bomb experts, sniffer dogs, and elite marksmen, with more than 3,000
03:49people on the ground in that small town alone. Paris planned for 14,000 police, gendarmes, and soldiers
03:55on the first day. In Spain, it meant a plan in four phases, with around 13,000 officers. By the
04:01time the
04:01Pope landed, more than 15,000 officers were on duty, and in Italy, the partnership never stops.
04:07In December 2025, Leo XIV met Italy's intelligence services at the Vatican and thanked them for
04:13keeping the Holy See safe. That is about as close as the Vatican ever gets to naming its spies.
04:18On paper, this looks like a visit by an American president. Same advance work, same motorcades,
04:23same snipers on the roofs, but there's one big difference, and it makes the Pope harder to
04:28protect. A president can stay behind glass. A Pope has to be seen, often at walking speed,
04:33in front of hundreds of thousands of people. The Swiss guards were taught to keep him as safe
04:36as possible without getting in the way of his ministry. Sometimes that balance is tested for
04:41real. In 2015, Francis flew into the Central African Republic during a war. His guards wore
04:46flak jackets, and UN tanks rolled through the streets of Bangui. He still went into the city's
04:51most dangerous Muslim district. Iraq in 2021 was even closer. In his memoir, Francis wrote that after
04:57he landed in Baghdad, he was told British intelligence had warned Iraqi police about
05:02two suicide attackers heading for his event in Mosul. By his account, when he asked the Vatican
05:07police chief what happened to them, he was told they were no more. A former governor of the region
05:11later denied there was any such plot. So we only have the Pope's side of that story. But even if
05:16it
05:16happened exactly as he wrote it, notice how the warning moved. British spies, to Iraqi police,
05:22to the Vatican's own officers, to the Pope. That is the whole system in one chain. And all of that
05:27is just
05:27the ground. The Pope still has to get there. And the car he rides in has already made its own
05:32secret
05:32trip. Two cars, one plane, and a second Pope. To understand the Popemobile, you have to start
05:38with one afternoon. On 13 May 1981, John Paul II was riding slowly around St. Peter's Square
05:44in an open Fiat Jeep. There was no glass and no armor. A gunman in the crowd fired four shots
05:50with a
05:50nine-millimeter pistol and hit him. He nearly died. The funny thing is, the glass box already existed.
05:55The year before, Mercedes had built a white G-Class for his trip to Germany with a raised seat and
06:01a
06:01tall, clear dome, mostly to keep off the rain. After the shooting, that same car was fitted with
06:06bulletproof glass. A dome for weather became a shield against bullets. A year later, for the trip
06:11to Britain, the builders went further. Two Range Rovers were made fully bulletproof at about 64,000 pounds
06:17each, and two huge Leyland trucks weighing 24 tons were built too. From then on, the idea was fixed.
06:23Let people see him. Make it hard to kill him. Pope Francis hated the sealed version. He said he could
06:27not greet people and tell them he loved them inside a sardine can, even one made of glass.
06:33So he often rode in open cars, and his guards simply tightened the ring around him. Now here is
06:38the part most people never think about. The Popemobile does not fly with the Pope. It travels on its own,
06:43days earlier, by a different route. For France in 2026, the Vatican sent two Popemobiles and a golf cart
06:50by road. They arrived early and were stored at a place nobody would name. The cars reached France
06:55about eight days before the Pope were kept at a military base under guard, and sat in a hidden
07:00hangar until the Swiss Guard inspected them again. For Spain, the cars flew. Two white Mercedes G-Class,
07:07both with the same Vatican plate, SCV-1, came in on Spanish Air Force A400M cargo planes, then rolled
07:14onto flatbed trucks under covers. One stayed in Madrid, the other went to Barcelona. Spain also used an
07:19Isuzu D-Max pickup and small buggies for tight spaces and stadiums. Why two? Because one car is
07:24a single point of failure. If it breaks down, the day is ruined. So there is a main car and
07:28a spare.
07:29This is not new. In the 1980s, the Vatican ran two Mercedes that leapfrogged from city to city,
07:35one working while the other waited in the next town. For the Philippines in 2015, the Bishops confirmed
07:40three Popemobiles and a backup. And no matter how long the host country has kept the car, the Swiss
07:46guard checks it one last time right before the Pope steps in. Then there is the convoy. In Spain,
07:51the Popemobile driver was always a trained security agent working live with the Vatican police,
07:56with escort cars riding alongside. Around them sat more than 1,000 vehicles and 16 aircraft.
08:03From a rooftop, good luck picking out one white car from all that. New York in 2015 had a stranger
08:08problem. Francis wanted a tiny Fiat 500L, so the Secret Service surrounded it with big armored
08:13SUVs and dozens of motorcycles. The small car was the real one. The trucks were the wall.
08:19There is even a second convoy that sounds like the first. The journalists traveling with the
08:23Pope do not ride with him. They drive ahead of him in their own police convoy, sirens on,
08:28so the cameras are ready when he arrives. From far away, you hear two motorcades,
08:32only one carries the Pope. So what about the rumor from the start? Does the Pope have a body double?
08:37Here is what we can actually prove. Presidents in some countries have used doubles,
08:41and the Pope faces the same kind of danger. So the idea is not crazy. But there is no Vatican
08:46statement, no memoir from a Vatican officer, and no host country report that says a double
08:50was used on any trip. The online posts claiming a fake Pope have been checked and knocked down.
08:55Backup cars are real. Convoys built to confuse are real. A second Pope is not proven now the plane.
09:01The Vatican does not own one. It never has. The first papal flight was Paul VI on 4 January 1964,
09:07on an Alitalia jet to Amman. On that flight he started a habit that still goes on today. The
09:13Pope sends a greeting telegram to every leader whose country he flies over. Today the Pope charters
09:18a normal airliner from Italy's airline, ITA. The airline brings the plane, the crew, and the flight
09:24plan, and the Vatican staff bring the dishes and the coat of arms. A team of about 60 people spends
09:30weeks sorting out landing slots and permission to cross other countries' skies. Inside, the seating
09:35almost never changes. The Pope sits in seat 1A, facing a picture of the Virgin Mary. Around him
09:41sit cardinals, his secretaries, and a doctor. Then come about 40 Vatican police and Swiss guards
09:47in dark suits. Behind a curtain sit around 80 journalists, and ITA often keeps a second plane
09:52ready in case the first one breaks. The fighter jets are real, but they are not secret. They have been
09:57filmed. In June 2026, flying between Spanish cities, Leo XIV sat in the cockpit while Spanish military
10:04aircraft flew beside the plane, and he waved to one of the pilots. Two months earlier,
10:08he told reporters that Algeria had given him a full military air escort across its skies,
10:13and sometimes the plan still falls apart. On 12 June 2026, at the end of the Spain trip,
10:19the Pope's Iberia jet in Tenerife would not start. King Felipe VI walked back up the stairs and gave the
10:26Pope his own air force jet. It only had room for a few people. So the Pope flew home,
10:30and about 80 journalists were left sitting on the island. It was the first time in decades
10:34a papal flight failed so badly he had to change planes. That is the big machine. But back home in
10:39Rome, the same Pope who travels with 15,000 guards can still slip out in a small blue car.
10:45The door he still slips out of incognito for a Pope does not mean invisible. It means the trip is
10:51not on
10:51the public schedule, the car is small, and the police follow in a second car. Francis turned down the
10:56official Mercedes as his daily car in Rome. The car he kept was a 2006 dark blue Ford Focus.
11:02It looked ordinary, but Vatican mechanics had rebuilt it and armored it. Later,
11:06he also used a Fiat 500L. He even had an old Renault 4. A parish priest from near Verona gave
11:12it to him
11:13in 2013. It was from 1984 and had 300,000 kilometers on it. Francis took the keys and drove it
11:19himself
11:19around the Vatican gardens, which gave his guards a real scare. The most famous escape happened on 3
11:24September 2015. Francis needed new lenses. Instead of letting the optician come to him,
11:29he got into the blue Focus and went to the shop himself on Via del Babuino, a busy tourist street
11:35in Rome. He stayed about 40 minutes. He kept his old frames because he did not want to spend money
11:40on new ones, and he insisted on paying. By the time he came out, a crowd had packed the street.
11:45A witness saw a bodyguard and some plainclothes police with him. Earlier that year, he had said on
11:50TV that he missed walking around Rome without being recognized and going out for a pizza.
11:55He never got the pizza. He went back to the same shop in July 2024. This time he came in
12:00a white Fiat
12:00500. He was frail by then, and his guards took a wheelchair from the boot. He kept the same frames
12:05again. Tourists crowded around within minutes. Who follows him on these trips? In Rome, it is a
12:10special Italian police unit of about 200 officers whose whole job is the Pope on Italian soil. The car
12:16may be small. The escort never goes away. Now the part people imagine most is the escape plan.
12:21The idea of a secret bunker at every stop. The honest answer is that public sources do not show
12:26one. What they show is quieter and more practical. The 1981 shooting taught the Vatican a hard lesson
12:32about blood. John Paul II had a rare type, a negative. During surgery, he needed six pints and
12:38four more over the next four days. Today, the traveling team carries a supply of the Pope's blood type,
12:43and a hospital room is kept empty and guarded around the clock in every city he visits. Does
12:47he fly with his own stored blood? That is not confirmed. The only official case was John Paul II
12:52near the end of his life, and those samples were never used. In Rome, the model for that hospital
12:57room is the 10th floor of the Gemelli Hospital. It is a plain white suite with its own chapel,
13:02and it stays empty when the Pope does not need it. On the road, he usually sleeps at the embassy
13:07of the
13:07Holy See, or a bishop's house, not a hotel. The crowd needs help too. When John Paul II held mass
13:13for
13:13350,000 people in Coventry in 1982, there was a 30-bed army field hospital. More than 1,400 people
13:21were treated. The only time the Vatican built a real escape plan was during a war. In September 1943,
13:27German troops took over Rome. The Vatican believed Hitler might try to kidnap Pius XII, so the gates were
13:33barred with sandbags, and a route was prepared into an old building called the Tower of the Winds,
13:38with British help ready if needed. Pius also had a legal plan. If he was arrested,
13:43he would count as resigned, so the Germans would be taking Eugenio Pacelli, not the Pope,
13:48and the cardinals could pick a new one, possibly in neutral Portugal. The kidnapping never came.
13:53John Paul II's trips home to communist Poland were a different kind of danger. They were public,
13:58but the government treated them like an enemy operation. For the 1979 visit,
14:02the secret police ran an operation called Summer 79, with thousands of officers and informants,
14:07and those files are now published by Poland's National Archive, and John Paul II had his own
14:12quiet escapes. More than a hundred times, he slipped out to ski in the mountains, once hidden behind a
14:18priest holding up a newspaper in the front seat. After he was shot, those trips went on, but with
14:23police checking the slopes first. So who pays for all of this? That is the part nobody likes to show.
14:29There is no single bill. The host country pays for security, the local church pays for the events,
14:34the Vatican pays for its own people, and the journalists buy their seats on the plane. When
14:38the numbers do come out, they are big. Canada's government spent at least 55.9 million Canadian
14:44dollars on Francis' six-day visit in 2022, and the Mounties alone spent more than 18 million.
14:50For France in 2026, the bishops put their share at 27 million euros, and the state's security forces
14:56come on top of that. That is how the Pope really travels. Not in secret, exactly. Inside a system
15:02so big and so quiet that most of it is never seen. Months of walking, two cars, a borrowed plane,
15:07an empty hospital room, and now and then, a small car slipping out a side gate to buy a pair
15:13of glasses.
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