DIPLOMATIC CORPS. – It consists of the body of diplomatic agents permanently accredited to a given State, who are usually considered collectively for merely protocol reasons, but sometimes for the performance of acts of legal significance (e.g. presentation of a note of protest; V. AGENTE DIPLOMATICO).
THE D. C. AT THE HOLY SEE. — It is composed of diplomatic agents accredited, in an ordinary and permanent capacity, to the Holy See. The latter does in fact exercise the right of active and passive legation; consequently, the countries to which a nuncio or internuncio is accredited, and sometimes others as well, usually have their own diplomatic representative at the Vatican.
The origin of such representations may be placed toward the end of the fifteenth century, while from the following century they assumed a permanent character.
At present (1949), the D. C. at the Holy See is composed of sixteen extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassadors (Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Ireland, Italy, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Spain, and Venezuela) and twenty-five extraordinary envoys and plenipotentiary ministers (Austria, Czechoslovakia, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Egypt, El Salvador, Finland, Great Britain, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Liberia, Lithuania, Principality of Monaco, Nicaragua, Holland, Order of Malta, Panama, Romania, San Marino, Hungary, and Uruguay), to whom must be added the personal representative of the President of the United States of America, who has the rank of ambassador. In the past, Japan had accredited to the Holy See a delegate, also with the rank of ambassador.
The envoys of foreign governments to the Holy See enjoy all the prerogatives and immunities accorded, under the rules of international law, to diplomatic agents; these prerogatives are likewise recognized for them, in accordance with Art. 12 of the Lateran Treaty, vis-à-vis the Italian State (in whose territory they may freely reside), even when the accrediting State has no diplomatic relations with Italy. Under Art. 19 of the aforementioned Treaty, diplomats and envoys of foreign Governments to the Holy See may enter Vatican territory through Italian territory with only the passport of their State of origin, visaed by a papal representative abroad.