In pectore

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In pectore (Latin for "in the breast/heart") is a term used in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to the power of the pope to name secret cardinals whose names are not revealed and whose identities are therefore known only to the pope and to God. Cardinals appointed in pectore do not need to be informed of their incardination, although such cases account for only a small fraction of such appointments. Such an appointee cannot function as a cardinal until he is published (i.e., revealed), but if he is published he is given seniority going back to the time of his appointment.

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.

Among areas where in pectore cardinals are believed in the past to have been named are the People's Republic of China and, before the fall of the Soviet Union and collapse of the Iron Curtain, in central and eastern Europe.

In pectore cardinals are eligible to participate in papal conclaves 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 both were published quite soon afterwards

1 History
2 Term usage
3 External links

[edit] History

[edit] 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 named Girolamo Aleandro in this fashion on December 22, 1536, presumably because Aleandro's life would have been in danger if he were named a cardinal. Cardinal Aleandro was published on March 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, on February 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 Historians have always speculated about who unpublished in pectore cardinals were, and it is generally believed that this first unpublished in pectore cardinal was Daniele Matteo Alvise Barbaro, whose appointment as a cardinal would have upset the English monarchy and caused hostilities unwanted by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 seventeenth 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 until April 26, 1773, when Pope Clement XIV created as many as eleven cardinals in pectore but none were published.

[edit] Late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

As anti-Catholic hostility among various governments became common, in pectore appointments became much more common during the late eighteenth and nineteenth 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 hostitility of the French Revolution, all of them were eventually published, as were Pope 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 appointment to rise dramatically: Pope Pius VIII created thirteen cardinals, but only five of them were ever published, whilst Pope 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) , whilst Pope Leo XIII named only seven cardinals out of 147 in pectore of whom all were subsequently revealed.

[edit] Modern Papacy

The only in pectore appointment by Pope Pius X, António Mendes Bello, was due to the revolution in Portugal in 1910 and was revelaed shortly before Pius died. World War I similarly prodcued Benedict XV's only in pectore cardinal, Adolf Bertram, who was published after the war ended and became a vigorous opponent of Nazism.

Popes Pius XI and Pius XII between them created only one cardinal in pectore, Federico Tedeschini (who was nuncio to Spain just before the Spanish Civil War) in 1933 (published 1935). It could be thought strange that neither pope made any in pectore appointments in European countries affected by the possibility of Marxist revolutions and/or World War II

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 was Cardinal 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 had already died.

Pope John Paul I created no cardinals, whilst Pope John Paul II named four cardinals out of 232 in pectore, of whom all but one were subsequently revealed:

Ignatius Kung Pin-Mei, Bishop of Shanghai, People's Republic of China - made cardinal 1979, revealed 1991, died 2000.
Marian Jaworski, Archbishop of Lviv, Ukraine - made cardinal 1998, revealed 2001.
Jānis Pujāts of Riga, 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 Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz, a close, longtime friend of John Paul II. However, he was made a cardinal at the March 24, 2006 consistory anyway, as has been announced by Benedict XVI on February 22, 2006. In February 2005, there was also a speculation that the in pectore cardinal was Joseph Werth, a German-born archbishop of Novosibirsk, Russia (See Moscow News article below).

[edit] 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.