nice question
& responding not as a religionist but only a devout philologist
i can report that the vatican hill of rome was the original seat of
etruscan divination & prophecy
so the prechristian vatinicity of the vatican locality may predate its
christian pontificity by a good millennium or so
& from early roman times
the pontifex maximus
aka the greatest bridge maker & prechristian pontiff of rome
who traditionally held the spot
channeled the divine will there
as if he were an aqueduct from heaven to earth
& the term city in vatican city
which came only much later
is really just the word for a political state rather than anything
resembling an actual urbopolis per se
in real terms the vatican may have been & may still be a town or
village state
but i dont believe it was ever an actual city state
so the other alternative term vatican city state is surely redundant
indeed the vatican is the worlds only state without a city
as well as within a city
& the see of the holy see means seat too
but in this case quite literally
the holy throne
aka cathedra
& by extension the heavenly court
the divine authority of the pope
the original jurisdiction of all sovereignty
& a major source btw of the divine right of kings scam
upon which our modern concept of national sovereignty &
countryhood is based
it is understandable that the throne & its occupant would have a
different vexillology than the state
& there may well be a diplomatic nuance depending on which of
them is actually recognized & treated with
but the terms vatican city & holy see
so far as i can see
& notwithstanding all these various shades of technical meaning
owing to all the twisted semantics & history & politics alike
are nevertheless widely taken to be synonymous
as a simple google search also makes clear
--- In
BoundaryPoint@yahoogroups.com, "Lowell G. McManus"
<mcmanus71496@m...> wrote:
> Mike wrote:
>
> > plus i think perhaps only the holy see & taiwan as special
cases...
>
> While I'm certain that the State of the Vatican City is a country, I
think there
> is some difference between it and the Holy See. I know that
they have slightly
> different flags, and I think that the Holy See is not a country. On
the other
> hand, I know that the USA exchanges diplomats with the Holy
See, but not with
> Vatican City, for some inexplicable reason.
>
> That's all I know, but it's probably not meant to be understood
by
> Congregational Methodists such as I. Perhaps some Roman
Catholic among us can
> explain it better.
>
> Lowell G. McManus
> Leesville, Louisiana, USA