- In pectore
"In pectore" (Latin for "in the breast/heart") is a term used in the
Roman Catholic Church to refer appointments to theCollege of Cardinals by thePope when the name of the newly appointed cardinal is not publicly revealed (it is reserved by the Pope "in his bosom"). This right of the pope is rarely exercised, usually in circumstances where the pope wanted to make a statement for later historians about the honor due to a cleric, but did not want to endanger that same cleric in his present circumstances of persecution.Cardinals appointed "in pectore" are not necessarily informed of their status. Such an appointee cannot function as a cardinal until his appointment is publicly announced, but once announced he enjoys seniority in the College calculated from the time of his appointment rather than from the announcement of that fact.
Popes may choose to keep cardinals' identities secret out of consideration for:
*The person's personal safety, when they live under regimes hostile to Catholicism, Christianity, or religion in general.
*The safety of the person's community, when it is feared that the public naming of a cardinal may lead to discrimination or hostility against Christians in general and/or Catholics in particular."In pectore" cardinals are eligible to participate in
papal conclave s only if they are publicly named by the Pope before his death. If he does not reveal their names, their cardinalate ceases upon the appointing pontiff's death. Three popes, Benedict XIV, Gregory XVI and Pius IX, were originally created as cardinals "in pectore" but all were published quite soon afterward.Among areas where it is believed that "in pectore" cardinals, whose names were not later revealed, were named include the
People's Republic of China and, before the fall of the Soviet Union and collapse of theIron Curtain , in central andEastern Europe .History
Origins
In the early history of cardinals, all cardinals appointed were published as a matter of course. The first pope to appoint a cardinal "in pectore" was
Pope Paul III , when he namedGirolamo Aleandro in this fashion onDecember 22 ,1536 , presumably because Aleandro's life would have been in danger if he were named a cardinal. Cardinal Aleandro was published onMarch 13 ,1538 . Paul III named five other cardinals "in pectore", but all of them were published relatively soon after being originally named.The first Pope to create a cardinal "in pectore" without later publishing his name was
Pope Pius IV , onFebruary 26 ,1561 . Historians have always speculated about who unpublished "in pectore" cardinals were, and it is generally believed that this first unpublished "in pectore" cardinal was Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro, whose appointment as a cardinal would have upset the English monarchy and caused hostilities unwanted by the pope.Although "in pectore" appointments were not uncommon in the 17th century, all such appointments were published soon after being made until 1699, when
Pope Innocent XII reserved two cardinals that were never published. This trend continued untilApril 26 ,1773 , whenPope Clement XIV created as many as "eleven" cardinals "in pectore" but none were published.Late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
As anti-Catholic hostility among various governments became common, "in pectore" appointments became much more common during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Whereas before 1777 all unpublished "in pectore" appointments had occurred because the pope making them died soon after, on June 23 of that year
Pope Pius VI created two cardinals "in pectore" and never revealed their names in the remaining 22 years of his papacy. He did the same seven years later for another cardinal.Pope Pius VII created eleven cardinals "in pectore"; despite the anti-Church hostility of theFrench Revolution , all of them were eventually published, as werePope Leo XII 's three "in pectore" appointments.The outbreak of major revolutions in
Europe during the late 1820s, however, caused the proportion of "in pectore" appointments to all cardinal appointments to rise dramatically:Pope Pius VIII created thirteen cardinals, but only five of them were ever published, whilstPope Gregory XVI created as many as "twenty-eight" cardinals (out of a total of eighty) "in pectore" (of which five were unpublished).After the
Revolutions of 1848 subsided, "in pectore" appointments declined. Pius IX made only five such appointments out of 123 cardinals (all published within four years of creation) , whilstPope Leo XIII named only seven cardinals (out of 147) "in pectore", of whom all were subsequently revealed.Modern Papacy
The only "in pectore" appointment by
Pope Pius X ,António Mendes Belo , was due to the revolution inPortugal in 1910 and was revealed shortly before Pius died.World War I similarly produced Benedict XV's only "in pectore" cardinal,Adolf Bertram , who was published after the war ended and became a vigorous opponent ofNazism .Pope Pius XI created only one cardinal "in pectore",Federico Tedeschini (who wasnuncio toSpain just before theSpanish Civil War ) in 1933 (published 1935). Neither Pius XI norPope Pius XII made any other "in pectore" appointments, either in European countries affected by the possibility of Marxist revolutions and/orWorld War II or in any other countries.With the threat of Communism lingering over
Eastern Europe and other parts of the globe,Pope John XXIII made three "in pectore" appointments on March 28, 1960 and never published them, creating the only case of such an appointment expiring during the twentieth century. It is probable according to many sources that one wasJosyf Slipyj , (re-)created cardinal and published by Paul VI in 1965. Pope Paul VI made three "in pectore" appointments but eventually published all of them, including one (Iuliu Hossu ) who died before his appointment was published; the other two wereŠtěpán Trochta (made cardinal 1969, published 1973, died 1974) andFrantišek Tomášek (made cardinal 1976, published 1977, died 1992).(Pope Paul VI appointedJoseph Trinh-nhu-Khuê "in pectore" in the April 28, 1976 announcement of an upcoming consistory, but published that appointment when the consistory was held on the following May 24.)Pope John Paul I created no cardinals, whilst Pope John Paul II named four cardinals (of 232 overall) "in pectore", of whom all but one were subsequently revealed:
*Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei ,Bishop ofShanghai ,People's Republic of China - made cardinal 1979, revealed 1991, died 2000.
*Marian Jaworski ,Archbishop ofLviv ,Ukraine - made cardinal 1998, revealed 2001.
*Jānis Pujāts ofRiga ,Latvia - made cardinal 1998, revealed 2001.
* The fourth cardinal was created in 2003. John Paul II did not reveal this cardinal's identity prior to his death, or in the 15-page testament he wrote during his papacy and which was released after his death. Consequently, this cardinalate has expired. Some suspect that this "secret Cardinal" was ArchbishopStanisław Dziwisz , a close, longtime friend of John Paul II. However, he was made a cardinal at theMarch 24 ,2006 consistory anyway, as has been announced byBenedict XVI onFebruary 22 ,2006 . In February 2005, there was also a speculation that the "in pectore" cardinal wasJoseph Werth , a German-born archbishop ofNovosibirsk ,Russia (see "Moscow News" article below).Term usage
Other than its religious meaning and origin, nowadays "in pectore" is basically used to refer to either something kept hidden or unrevealed or an expected, but still not official, appointment to an office (especially in politics).
The
Italian language version of the phrase – "in petto" – is also commonly used.External links
* [http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050405/NEWS/504050337 Disclosure of "mystery cardinal" awaited] (
Associated Press ,5 April 2005 )
* [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3305285/ John Paul II's testament fails to reveal secret cardinal, Vatican says] (MSNBC ,6 April 2005 )
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08025b.htm In Petto] Catholic Encyclopedia article
* [http://www.mn.ru/issue.php?2005-6-1 Will the Pope come from Russia?] "Moscow News" article (in Russian).
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