| Post: | Secretary of State |
| Body: | His Holiness |
| Native Name: | |
| Insignia: | Coat of arms of the Vatican City.svg |
| Insigniacaption: | Coat of arms of the Holy See |
| Incumbent: | Pietro Parolin |
| Incumbentsince: | 15 October 2013 |
| Department: | Secretariat of State |
| Style: | His Eminence |
| Member Of: | Roman Curia Council of Cardinals |
| Reports To: | The Pope |
| Appointer: | The Pope |
| Termlength: | Appointment of a new Pope |
| Formation: | 20 November 1551 |
| First: | Girolamo Dandini |
| Unofficial Names: | Cardinal Secretary of State |
The Secretary of State of His Holiness (Latin: Secretarius Status Sanctitatis Suae,Italian: Segretario di Stato di Sua Santità), known as the Cardinal Secretary of State, presides over the Holy See's Secretariat of State, which is the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia.[1] The Secretariat of State performs all the political and diplomatic functions of the Holy See and the Vatican City State. The secretary of state is sometimes described as the prime minister of the Holy See,[2] even though the nominal head of government of Vatican City is the President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin has been secretary of state since 2013.[3]
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 Catholic Church, the secretary is required to be a cardinal. If the office is vacant, a non-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.[4]
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.[4]
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 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 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.
| No. | Name | From | Until | Appointer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | Alessandro Franchi | 5 March 1878 | 31 July 1878 † | Leo XIII | ||
| 42 | Lorenzo Nina | 9 August 1878 | 16 December 1880 | |||
| 43 | Luigi Jacobini | 16 December 1880 | 28 February 1887 † | |||
| 44 | Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro | 2 July 1887 | 20 July 1903 | |||
| 45 | Rafael Merry del Val y Zulueta | 12 November 1903 | 20 August 1914 | Pius X | ||
| 46 | Domenico Ferrata | 4 September 1914 | 10 October 1914 † | Benedict XV | ||
| 47 | Pietro Gasparri | 13 October 1914 | 7 February 1930 | |||
| 48 | Eugenio Pacelli | 9 February 1930 | 10 February 1939 | Pius XI | ||
| 49 | Luigi Maglione | 10 March 1939 | 22 August 1944 † | Pius XII | ||
| Office vacant[5] | ||||||
| 50 | Domenico Tardini | 15 December 1958 | 30 July 1961 † | John XXIII | ||
| 51 | Amleto Giovanni Cicognani | 12 August 1961 | 30 April 1969 | |||
| 52 | Jean-Marie Villot | 2 May 1969 | 9 March 1979 † | Paul VI | ||
| 53 | Agostino Casaroli | 1 July 1979 | 1 December 1990 | John Paul II | ||
| 54 | Angelo Sodano | 29 June 1991 | 15 September 2006 | |||
| 55 | Tarcisio Bertone | 15 September 2006 | 15 October 2013 | Benedict XVI | ||
| 56 | Pietro Parolin | 15 October 2013 | Incumbent | Francis | ||
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.[6]