There Is No Such Thing as 'the Vatican'

English-language media coverage out of Rome often employs phrases such as, “the Vatican today said x,” or “observers say the Vatican is hoping x,” or “the Vatican appears afraid of x,” and so on, to set up or unpack whatever the day’s news may be.

Here’s the thing: As stated, such verbiage is generally nonsense, because there simply is no such animal as “the Vatican” in the sense in which the term is being used.