One Church, One Pope -- and 20 Popemobiles

Vatican garages house six of the four-ton, bulletproof Popemobiles. And a surprising 14 other heavy-duty papal vehicles stand at the ready around the world. (The one John Paul rode through Denver last month was shipped up from Mexico.) Land Rover manufactured the first Popemobile for his visit to Britain in 1982, shortly after the Pontiff survived an assassin's bullet. Since then, almost everywhere John Paul went, new Popemobiles were sure to appear -- manufactured and generally donated by Renault, Peugeot, GM, Toyota and Mercedes Benz, among others. Last week, on his trip to the Baltic states (his 61st foray out of the Holy See), the Pope took along his Mercedes and Land Rover models.