Being the living incarnation of two thousand years of religious tradition has got to be rough on a guy. Popes of the modern era have been burdened with the additional task of traveling to tend to the flock, heading out from the confines of the Vatican City to exotic places like Venezuela, Africa and Hamtramck. Look it up. Anyway, the task would be insurmountable if not for Poppa's trusty and reliable sidekick, the Popemobile. Serving duly as a perch from whence to greet the masses — and as protection from said masses for the Holy See, the Popemobile has gone through many iterations, some of which you'll have a hard time believing. Popemobiles come in two varieties. The locally made, customized versions, often hewn from the host nation's finest home-grown automobile and turned into a rolling vista fit for a king — or at least the head of a sovereign nation. Then there are the official Popemobiles, now the only kind after the attempt on John Paul II's life in 1981. Some are made for daily open-air service in St. Peter's Square and others are bullet-proof Popequariums which travel with the high pontiff to locations far and wide.  read more »

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