Vatican on Alert - ISIS Threat

[Chas]

So walk me through this -- say hypothetically, ISIS(L) makes good on their threat and launches an attack resulting in harm or death of the Pope.

Then what? What does the semi-homogeneous "west" do about it?

They are already a very naughty group indeed and not exactly on everyone's XMAS card list.

Vatican City is a sovereign nation, and as Davka points out they have no useful military forces of their own. Their formal neutrality means that they have no security treaty with any other nation, either. They'd have to ask another country to undertake the war on the Vatican's behalf. Italy could perhaps be pushed into that position, because by treaty Italy is supposed to treat an attack on the Pope as an attack on the Italian king, but that's a little bit of a stretch.

I imagine us Americans would be easy to sway into another foreign adventure, unfortunately.

Wouldn't they just do what they have done before and call all good Christians to join in a Holy Crusade?