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The Secretary of State of His Holiness The Pope, commonly known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia.[1] The Secretariat of State performs all the political and diplomatic functions of the Holy See and the Vatican City. The Secretary of State is sometimes described as the prime minister of the Holy See,[2] even though the nominal head of government of Vatican City is the President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.

The Secretary of State is currently Cardinal Pietro Parolin.[3]

Duties

The Cardinal Secretary is appointed by the Pope, and serves as one of his principal advisors. As one of the senior offices in the Roman Catholic Church, the Secretary is required to be a cardinal. If the office is vacant, a non-cardinal may serve as Pro-tem Secretary of State, exercising the powers of the Secretary of State until a suitable replacement is found or the Pro-Secretary is made a cardinal in a subsequent consistory.

The Cardinal Secretary's term ends when the Pope who appointed him dies or leaves office. During the sede vacante period, the former Secretary acts as a member of a commission with the Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church and the former President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, which exercises some of the functions of the head of state of the Vatican City until a new Pope is elected. Once the new Pope is chosen, the former Secretary's role in the commission likewise expires, though he can be re-appointed as Secretary of State.

History

The office traces its origins to that of secretary intimus, created by Pope Leo X in the early 16th century to handle correspondence with the diplomatic missions of the Holy See, which were just beginning to become permanent postings instead of missions sent on particular occasions. At this stage the secretary was a fairly minor functionary, the Vatican administration being led by the Cardinal Nephew, the Pope's confidant usually taken from his family.

The imprudence of Pope Julius III in entrusting the office of Cardinal Nephew to his alleged lover Innocenzo Ciocchi Del Monte, a teenaged, virtually illiterate street urchin whom his brother had adopted a few years earlier, led to an upgrading of the Secretary's job, as the incumbent had to take over the duties the Cardinal Nephew was unfit for. By the time of Pope Innocent X the Secretary of State was always himself a Cardinal, and Pope Innocent XII abolished the office of Cardinal Nephew in 1692. From then onwards the Secretary of State has been the most important of the officials of the Holy See.

In 1968, Pope Paul VI's apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae further enhanced the powers of the Secretary, placing him over all the other departments of the Roman Curia. In 1973 Paul further broadened the Secretaryship by abolishing the ancient office of Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church and merging its functions into those of the Secretary.

List

Secretaries of State between 1551 and 1644

Cardinal Secretaries of State since 1644

  1. Giovanni Giacomo Panciroli (1644–1651)
  2. Fabio Chigi (1651–1655); then elected Pope Alexander VII (1655–1667)
  3. Giulio Rospigliosi (1655–1667); then elected Pope Clement IX (1667–1669)
  4. Decio Azzolini the younger (1667–1669)
  5. Federico Borromeo, junior (1670–1673)
  6. Francesco Nerli (1673–1676)
  7. Alderano Cybo (1676–1689)
  8. Giambattista Rubini (1689–1691)
  9. Fabrizio Spada (1691–1700)
  10. Fabrizio Paolucci (1700–1721) (first time)
  11. Giorgio Spinola (1721–1724)
  12. Fabrizio Paolucci (1724–1726) (second time)
  13. Niccolò Maria Lercari (1726–1730)
  14. Antonio Banchieri (1730–1733)
  15. Giuseppe Firrao, Sr. (1733–1740)
  16. Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (1740–1756)
  17. Alberico Archinto (1756–1758)
  18. Ludovico Maria Torriggiani (1758–1769)
  19. Lazzaro Opizio Pallavicini (1769–1785)
  20. Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi (1785–1789)
  21. Francesco Saverio de Zelada (1789–1796)
  22. Ignazio Busca (1796–1797)
  23. Giuseppe Doria Pamphili (1797–1799)
  24. Ercole Consalvi, pro-secretary (1800); secretary (1800–1806)
  25. Filippo Casoni (1806–1808)
  26. Giulio Gabrielli the Younger (1808–1814) -Giuseppe Doria Pamphilj, pro-secretary (1808) -Bartolomeo Pacca, pro-secretary (1808–1814)
  27. Ercole Consalvi (1814–1823)
  28. Giulio Maria della Somaglia (28 September 1823 – 17 January 1828)
  29. Tommaso Bernetti, pro-secretary (17 June 1828 – 10 February 1829) (first time)
  30. Giuseppe Albani (31 March 1829 – 30 November 1830)
  31. Tommaso Bernetti, pro-secretary (21 February - 10 August 1831); cardinal secretary (10 August 1831 – 12 January 1836) (second time)
  32. Luigi Lambruschini (12 January 1836 – 1 June 1846)
  33. Tommaso Pasquale Gizzi (8 August 1846 – 5 July 1847)
  34. Gabriele Ferretti (17 July 1847 – 31 December 1848)
  35. Giuseppe Bofondi (1 February - 10 March 1848)
  36. Giacomo Antonelli (10 March - 3 May 1848) (first time)
  37. Anton Orioli (5 May - 4 June 1848), cardinal secretary ad interim
  38. Giovanni Soglia Ceroni (4 June - 29 November 1848)
  39. Giacomo Antonelli (29 November 1848 – 6 November 1876) (second time)
  40. Giovanni Simeoni (18 December 1876 – 7 February 1878)
  41. Alessandro Franchi (5 March - 31 July 1878)
  42. Lorenzo Nina (9 August 1878 – 16 December 1880)
  43. Luigi Jacobini (16 December 1880 – 28 February 1887)
  44. Mariano Rampolla (2 June 1887 – 20 July 1903)
  45. Rafael Merry del Val (12 November 1903 – 20 August 1914)
  46. Domenico Ferrata (4 September – 10 October 1914)
  47. Pietro Gasparri (13 October 1914 – 7 February 1930)
  48. Eugenio Pacelli (9 February 1930 – 10 February 1939) then elected Pope Pius XII
  49. Luigi Maglione (10 March 1939 – 22 August 1944)
  50. Domenico Tardini (15 December 1958 – 30 July 1961)[4]
  51. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani (12 August 1961 – 30 April 1969)
  52. Jean-Marie Villot (2 May 1969 – 9 March 1979)
  53. Agostino Casaroli (1 July 1979 – 1 December 1990)
  54. Angelo Sodano (29 June 1991 – 22 June 2006)
  55. Tarcisio Bertone (15 September 2006 – 15 October 2013)
  56. Pietro Parolin (15 October 2013 – )

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Profile: The Secretariat of State". The Holy See. Retrieved 2007-04-18. 
  2. ^ "The Vatican's secretary of state visits Moscow for the first time in 19 years". The Economist. 25 August 2017. Retrieved 26 August 2017. 
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-22. Retrieved 2013-10-28. 
  4. ^ Pope Pius XII, having been the Secretary of State under Pope Pius XI, did not name a Secretary after the death of Cardinal Maglione in 1944. Beneath his direct supervision, the duties were divided between two protonotary apostolic, Domenico Tardini and Giovanni Battista Montini, who in 1952 were both named Pro-Secretary of State, for Extraordinary and Ordinary affairs respectively. In 1954 Montini (the future Pope Paul VI) left the Roman Curia to become Archbishop of Milan, but only under Pope John XXIII was Tardini named a Cardinal and full Secretary.

External links

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