Cardinal Secretary of State
Head of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See
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Cardinal Pietro Parolin has served as secretary of state since 2013, nominated by Pope Francis and confirmed by Pope Leo XIV in May 2025.
Duties
The secretary of state 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 someone other than a cardinal may serve as provisional 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 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 State 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.
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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 papal 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 onward the secretary of state has been the most important of the officials of the Holy See.
The separate position of Cardinal Secretary for Internal State Affairs was created by Pope Gregory XVI in 1833 at the request of Tommaso Bernetti, then secretary of state, reducing the workload of the secretary of state.
In 1968, Pope Paul VI's apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae further enhanced the powers of the secretary of state, placing him over all the other departments of the Roman Curia. In 1973 Pope 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 of state.
List
Secretaries of State between 1551 and 1644
- Girolamo Dandini (1551–1555)
- Carlo Borromeo (1560–1565)
- Tolomeo Gallio (1565–1566)
- Girolamo Rusticucci (1566–1572)
- Tolomeo Gallio (again) (1572–1585)
- Decio Azzolini (seniore) (1585–1587)
- Alessandro Peretti di Montalto (Cardinal Nephew) (1587–1590)
- Paolo Emilio Sfondrati (Cardinal Nephew) (1591)
- Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti de Nuce (Cardinal Nephew) (1591)
- Pierbenedetto Peretti (1592–1593)
- Pietro Aldobrandini (Cardinal Nephew) and Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini (Cardinal Nephew) (1593–1605)
- Roberto Ubaldini (1605)
- Erminio Valenti (1605)
- Lanfranco Margotti (1605–1611)
- Porfirio Feliciani (1611–1621)
- Giovanni Battista Agucchi (1621–1623)
- Lorenzo Magalotti (1623–1628)
- Lorenzo Azzolini (1628–1632)
- Pietro Benessa (1632–1634)
- Francesco Adriano Ceva (1634–1643)
- Giovanni Battista Spada (1643–1644)
Cardinal Secretaries of State since 1644
In popular culture
- Silvio Orlando portrayed fictional 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.
- Robert Harris' novel Conclave features fictional Cardinal Secretary of State Aldo Bellini. The character is played by Stanley Tucci in the film adaptation.