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But it doesn’t make sense over here.

It’s not like bishops and archbishops and cardinals can break the law here and claim diplomatic immunity. cardinals and archbishops are regarded as ambassador-type diplomats, but they can be arrested.

SO they’re a nation but their diplomats (high officials) aren’t afforded diplomatic immunity. are they diplomats or aren’t they?

muslim clerics here don’t have diplomatic immunity either.

Not every Catholic, or even every cleric, is a citizen of the Vatican—very few are. Conversely, if one were born in the Vatican, one could (at least potentially—I’m not sure what the rules are on citizenship) be a Vatican citizen without being a Catholic.

For a member of the Vatican Embassy to receive diplomatic immunity, he (assuming no shes here), must be on the Diplomatic List. He is issued a diplomatic carnet by the host foreign ministry or state department and is carried by the diplomat so he doesn't have to carry his diplomatic passport with him.

When Noriega was holed up in the Vatican Legation in Panama in 1990. He was safe as long as the embassy shield was displayed. When the Diplomatic staff left, they took the shield, and Noriega's protection with it. When they left, the Vatican Legation was just another building,and the U.S. Army could waltz in and detain Ol' Pineapple Face.

I was stationed at the U.S. embassy in Rome 1976-1979. At that time, the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican was a single office, right across the hallway from mine. I never once saw the Ambassador, a member of the Lodge family IIRC. About the time I left, the U.S. Embassy officially opened in the Vatican itself.