Cardinal Secretary of State


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. 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, 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.

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 secretarius 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

Chancellors of Holy Roman Church, 1088-1187

  1. Giovanni Giacomo Panciroli
  2. Fabio Chigi ; then elected Pope Alexander VII
  3. Giulio Rospigliosi ; then elected Pope Clement IX
  4. Decio Azzolini
  5. Federico Borromeo
  6. Francesco Nerli
  7. Alderano Cybo
  8. Giambattista Rubini
  9. Fabrizio Spada
  10. Fabrizio Paolucci
  11. Giorgio Spinola
  12. Fabrizio Paolucci
  13. Niccolò Maria Lercari
  14. Antonio Banchieri
  15. Giuseppe Firrao, Sr.
  16. Silvio Valenti Gonzaga
  17. Alberico Archinto
  18. Ludovico Maria Torriggiani
  19. Lazzaro Opizio Pallavicini
  20. Ignazio Boncompagni Ludovisi
  21. Francesco Saverio de Zelada
  22. Ignazio Busca
  23. Giuseppe Doria Pamphili
  24. Ercole Consalvi, pro-secretary ; secretary
  25. Filippo Casoni
  26. Giulio Gabrielli the Younger -Giuseppe Doria Pamphilj, pro-secretary -Bartolomeo Pacca, pro-secretary
  27. Ercole Consalvi
  28. Giulio Maria della Somaglia
  29. Tommaso Bernetti, pro-secretary
  30. Giuseppe Albani
  31. Tommaso Bernetti, pro-secretary ; cardinal secretary
  32. Luigi Lambruschini
  33. Tommaso Pasquale Gizzi
  34. Gabriele Ferretti
  35. Giuseppe Bofondi
  36. Giacomo Antonelli
  37. Anton Orioli, cardinal secretary ad interim
  38. Giovanni Soglia Ceroni
  39. Giacomo Antonelli
  40. Giovanni Simeoni
  41. Alessandro Franchi
  42. Lorenzo Nina
  43. Luigi Jacobini
  44. Mariano Rampolla
  45. Rafael Merry del Val
  46. Domenico Ferrata
  47. Pietro Gasparri
  48. Eugenio Pacelli then elected Pope Pius XII
  49. Luigi Maglione
  50. Domenico Tardini
  51. Amleto Giovanni Cicognani
  52. Jean-Marie Villot
  53. Agostino Casaroli
  54. Angelo Sodano
  55. Tarcisio Bertone
  56. Pietro Parolin

    In popular culture

portrayed Cardinal Secretary of State Voiello in the 2016 Sky Italia Sky Atlantic HBO Canal+ co-produced television series The Young Pope and the 2019 follow up series, The New Pope.