Andorra's coinages honoring popes reflect the co-principality's unusual constitutional arrangement: the Bishop of Urgell serves as one of two co-princes of Andorra, giving the Catholic Church a formal governmental role in the territory. Paul VI, who died in 1978, appears here nearly three decades after his death — part of a retrospective series rather than a contemporary tribute. His pontificate produced the most sweeping liturgical reforms since the Council of Trent, and his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae remains one of the most contested papal documents of the twentieth century.
Andorra's coinages honoring popes reflect the co-principality's unusual constitutional arrangement: the Bishop of Urgell serves as one of two co-princes of Andorra, giving the Catholic Church a formal governmental role in the territory. Paul VI, who died in 1978, appears here nearly three decades after his death — part of a retrospective series rather than a contemporary tribute. His pontificate produced the most sweeping liturgical reforms since the Council of Trent, and his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae remains one of the most contested papal documents of the twentieth century.