In pectore (Latin for 'in the breast/heart') is a term used in the Catholic Church for an action, decision, or document which is meant to be kept secret. It is most often used when there is a papal appointment to the College of Cardinals without a public announcement of the name of that cardinal. The pope reserves that name to himself. The Italian-language version of the phrase – in petto – is sometimes used. When the name of a new cardinal is announced or made public, it is sometimes said to be published.
Since the practice arose in the sixteenth century its use has varied greatly. Some popes have used it rarely or not at all, while others have used it regularly. In the first half of the 19th century, Pope Gregory XVI appointed half of his 75 cardinals in pectore and left several unidentified at his death.
Since the fifteenth century, popes have made such appointments to manage complex relations among factions within the Church, when publication of a new cardinal's name might provoke persecution of the individual or of a Christian community or, when the identity of the new cardinal is an open secret, to signal defiance of government opposition or stake out a diplomatic or moral position. Over the centuries, popes have made in pectore appointments in consideration of government and political relations in a wide variety of nations, from Portugal and several European states to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
Once his appointment is published, the precedence of a cardinal appointed in pectore is determined by the date of the appointment, not the announcement. This reflects the principle that he has been a cardinal from the earlier date and that membership in the College of Cardinals depends on the decision of the pope, not any ceremony or ritual. The announcement allows the cardinal to receive and wear the symbols of his office, use the titles appropriate to his rank, and to perform the functions specific to a cardinal, most importantly, if otherwise qualified, to participate in a papal conclave. Should the pope die without publishing an appointment he has made in pectore, the appointment lapses.
In the early history of the College of Cardinals, all cardinals appointed were published as a matter of course. Under pressure to maintain a delicate network of alliances in the last years of Western Schism, beginning in 1423 Martin V withheld the names of some he created cardinals, the first in pectore appointments. [1] [a] A century later, Paul III created Girolamo Aleandro a cardinal on 22 December 1536 and published his name on 13 March 1538. [5] Paul III later named five more cardinals in pectore, all of whose names were published within a few years. [6] Pius IV created a cardinal in pectore on 26 February 1561 and became the first to fail to publish such an appointment. [7]
Although in pectore appointments were not uncommon in the 17th century, all such appointments were soon published until Innocent XII named two cardinals in 1699 whose names were never published. [8] On 26 April 1773, Clement XIV created eleven cardinals in pectore, none of whom were published. [9]
As anti-Catholic hostility among various governments became common, in pectore appointments became much more common during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Previously cases of unpublished in pectore appointments had only occurred when a pope died shortly after creating the cardinal, but popes began to wait much longer to publish such appointments creating a greater likelihood that a name would remain unpublished. On 23 June 1777 Pius VI created two cardinals in pectore and lived another 22 years without publishing their names. [10] In the course of 23 years, Pius VII created twelve cardinals in pectore whose names he published and none whose names went unpublished, though two others died before he published their names. [11] Leo XII made eight in pectore appointments in just six years and all were published. [12] When the reign of Pius VIII ended unexpectedly after just 19 months, he had created six cardinals, and another eight in pectore whose appointments died with him. [13] Gregory XVI created 81 cardinals, 29 of them in pectore, of which six were unpublished. [14]
The frequency of appointments in pectore declined later in the 19th century. Pope Pius IX made only five such appointments out of 123 cardinals, and all were published within four years of creation. Pope Leo XIII named only seven cardinals out of 147 in pectore and all were published. The only in pectore appointment by Pope Pius X was António Mendes Belo, Patriarch of Lisbon. The Portuguese Republic established in 1910 had adopted severely anticlerical policies. Belo's appointment was revealed on 25 May 1914, the last time Pius created cardinals three months before his death, [15] though the Holy See did not recognize the government of Portugal until 1919. Pope Benedict XV made two in pectore appointments in 1916: one, possibly Paul von Huyn, [16] was never published and the other was Adolf Bertram, a German bishop, whose country was at war with Italy. His name was published in December 1919 after the war ended. [17] [18] [19] In 1933, Pope Pius XI created two cardinals in pectore: Federico Tedeschini, Nuncio to Spain, and Carlo Salotti, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites. They were made public in the consistory of 16 December 1935. [20] [21] [22] Pope John XXIII made three in pectore appointments on 28 March 1960 and never published them. [23] [24] [b]
Pope Paul VI made four in pectore appointments. One of them, Iuliu Hossu, died without his appointment being published, though Paul revealed it a few years later. [28] Paul made in pectore appointments of Štěpán Trochta on 28 April 1969, published 5 March 1973, [29] and František Tomášek on 24 May 1976, published 22 June 1977. [30] In the case of Joseph Trinh-Nhu-Khuê, Paul made the appointment in pectore on 28 April 1976 when announcing his next consistory. When the government of Vietnam granted Trinh-Nhu-Khuê a visa to travel to Rome, Paul published the appointment as a surprise by having Trinh-Nhu-Khuê's name called as the last of twenty cardinals created at that consistory on 24 May. [31]
Pope John Paul II named four cardinals in pectore, three of whom he later revealed: Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, Bishop of Shanghai, People's Republic of China, appointed in pectore 30 June 1979, published 29 May 1991; [32] Marian Jaworski, Archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine; and Jānis Pujāts of Riga, Latvia, both of whom were appointed in pectore on 21 February 1998, and both published 29 January 2001. [33] John Paul created the fourth in 2003, but never revealed the name so the appointment expired with the pope's death. Had the name been discovered in the pope's will, such "posthumous publication" would not have changed that. [34] [4]
Five cardinals who were later elected pope were created cardinals in pectore. In each case, publication followed closely upon their appointment. They were:
In The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) by Morris West, a Ukrainian, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, arrives in Rome and is revealed to have been appointed a cardinal in pectore by the previous pope. [40]
In Vatican: A novel (1986) by Malachi Martin, a pope on his deathbed reveals that he had named the central character, Richard Lansing, a cardinal in pectore. [41]
In Father Elijah by Michael D. O'Brien, the titular character is appointed bishop in pectore and sent to his new, remote diocese in order to evade arrest for the framed murder of his friend.[ citation needed ]
In The Secret Cardinal (2007) by Tom Grace, the pope enlists a cardinal's godson, former Navy Seal Nolan Kilkenny, to rescue a prelate named a cardinal in pectore twenty years earlier from a Chinese prison. [42]
In Conclave (2016) by Robert Harris, Vincent Benítez, a Filipino serving as Archbishop of Baghdad, arrives just before the start of a conclave with a document that proves he was named a cardinal in pectore by the late pope. To explain this unusual procedure, Harris has the dean of the College of Cardinals remind a cardinal that the late pope "revised the canon law on in pectore appointments shortly before he died". [43] [44] In the film version, this hidden cardinal is Mexican and the bishop of Kabul.
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The 1464 papal conclave, convened after the death of Pope Pius II, elected as his successor cardinal Pietro Barbo, who took the name Paul II.
The papal conclave held from 5 to 7 May 1342 was convened after the death of Pope Benedict XII and elected Cardinal Pierre Roger to succeed as pope. The fourth pope of the period of the Avignon Papacy, he took the name Clement VI.
In the papal conclave held on 29 and 30 December 1370, after the death of Pope Urban V, Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort was elected pope under the name Gregory XI. He thus became seventh and the last pope of the period of Avignon Papacy.
The 1458 papal conclave, convened after the death of Pope Callixtus III, elected as his successor Cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini who took the name Pius II.
Pope Pius VIII created six new cardinals in three consistories.
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Pope Clement XIV created 16 cardinals in twelve consistories.
Pope Leo XIII created 147 cardinals in 27 consistories held at roughly annual intervals. With his appointments he approached but did not exceed the limit on the size of the College of Cardinals set at 70 in 1586. The size of the college was 64 at the beginning and end of Leo XIII's 25-year papacy. With 147 additions to a body of fewer than 70, Leo had, as one observer phrased it, "renewed the Sacred College more than twice".
Pope Benedict XV created 32 cardinals in five consistories over less than seven and a half years, with a three year gap during the worst fighting of the First World War. Nineteen of the 32 were Italian, twelve came from other European countries, and the lone non-European was Dennis Dougherty from the United States. They included Achille Ratti, his successor as Pope Pius XI and one name, that of the German Adolf Bertram, reserved in pectore for three years.
Pope John XXIII created 52 cardinals in five consistories. Beginning at his first consistory, he expanded the size of the College beyond the limit of seventy established in 1586 and on several occasions announced that further increases should be expected. It rose to 88 in January 1961. He named three additional cardinals in pectore, that is, secretly, but did not reveal their names before his death.
In sixteen years, Pope Pius XI created 76 cardinals in 17 consistories. Though he created 18 cardinals at a consistory in 1935, he typically created very few cardinals at one time, holding small, frequent consistories, some of them less than six months apart. He held a consistory in 1929 to create just one cardinal, and created just two on eight occasions.
Pope Pius XII created 56 cardinals in two consistories. On both occasions Pius tried to bring the membership of the College of Cardinals to 70, the maximum established by Pope Sixtus V in 1586. The death of one cardinal meant his first consistory brought the College to 69 members, but his second consistory, through the prompt addition of another name after a cardinal-designate died, brought the number of cardinals to 70.
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Pope Martin V created seventeen cardinals in four consistories held throughout his pontificate. He remade Baldassare Cossa - the reconciled former Antipope John XXIII as a cardinal. It is said that the pope was the first one to name cardinals without "publishing" them at the same time and so these creations differed than those kept in pectore. The latter ones are known to the pope alone while the former are known to the College of Cardinals. The two he named in 1423 are examples of this in addition to two in 1426 and another two in 1430. Those reserved in 1426 were announced in 1430 while one in 1430 was revealed on 4 July 1431 and another was revealed later on 11 March 1432 both by Pope Eugene IV.
Prospero Colonna and Giuliano Cesarini were made cardinals in pectore on 24 March 1426.
These secret creations are different than those created and reserved in pectore. The latter ones [by Paul III] are known only to the pope while the former creations [by Martin V] are also known to the other cardinals.[ self-published source ]
After the Roman Pontiff has made his name public...
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "In Petto". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. "Until they have been publicly announced" and "But the canonists having raised serious doubts as to the validity of such a posthumous publication..."Alla morte del papa Slipyj era uno dei tre cardinali da lui creati e rimasti « in pectore »: glielo confidò il cardinale Gustavo Testa.
If the holy father had made that person's name known before dying, it would have been disclosed by now," said Cardinal Edmund Casimir Szoka of Michigan. "It's over. That person will no longer be a cardinal.
'He has a letter of appointment from the late Pope addressed to the archdiocese of Baghdad, which they kept secret at the Holy Father's request.' ... The papers certainly looked authentic....
