Why is Vatican a state?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Really, why does the Vatican have a status of a state, although it has no permanent population, industry, transport, utility system, currency, or any other of the distinguishing features of a true state? And yet its statehood lets Vatican send its representatives to deliberate on committees of the United Nations, where it wields its vote and influence against even mildly progressive policies like the distribution of condoms to fight HIV/AIDS.

So isn't Vatican's statehood absurd?

It isn’t really absurd. The Catholic population didn’t want the Kingdom of Italy to have authority over the Church, and the Church didn’t want the responsibility of having to deal with the secular governance of Rome. The Lateran Treaty was actually a pretty clever way to not give both sides what they didn’t want. It’s debatable, but failure to set up the Vatican as its own city state may very well have triggered a civil war.

Boru

Edit: Yeah, what our favourite lizard said.