Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, to double as camerlengo, replacing Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, who has retired after reaching his 80th birthday.The camerlengo, or chamberlain of the apostolic chamber, has minimal responsibilities while a Pope is living, but takes over the responsibility for temporary governance of the Holy See when the Pope dies.
Ordinarily the office is held by a prelate with another full-time assignment in the Roman Curia.
Cardinal Martinez Somalo (pic'd here), a native of Spain, has served as camerl
engo since 1993, and presided over the Holy See after the death of Pope John Paul II and through the election of Benedict XVI.He is a former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Congregation for Religious, having retired in 2004 from the latter post at the age of 76.
In a letter to the outgoing camerlengo, Pope Benedict thanked the Spanish prelate for "the diligence, competence, and love" with which he had served.
In particular the Pope acknowledged "the great dignity and solemnity with which you carried out the role of camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church at the time of the death of the lamented Pope John Paul II."
That task was particularly difficult, Pope Benedict observed, because of the massive international outpouring of affection for the late Pontiff.
Cardinal Martinez Somalo's retirement as camerlengo was announced just a few days after his 80th birthday, which he celebrated on March 31.
The office of camerlengo can be traced back to the 11th century, when the camera thesauraria--- treasure chamber-- was the office handling financial affairs for the Holy See.
The head of that office was the camerlengo, or chamberlain.
By the 15th century it had become mandatory that the camerlengo should be a cardinal.
The scope of the office has changed significantly over the centuries, but the camerlengo has always been involved with the handling of practical, temporal affairs for the Holy See-- with finances and administration rather than spiritual and doctrinal affairs.
The current duties of the camerlengo were set forth by Pope Paul VI in his apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae in 1967 and updated by John Paul II in Pastor Bonus of 1988 and Universi Dominici Gregis of 1996.
Essentially, the camerlengo supervises the temporal administration of the Vatican during the interregnum between Popes.
As caretaker the Holy See during the sede vacante period, the camerlengo has the responsibility formally to certify the death of the Pope; to seal off the papal apartments; to preside at prayer services for the deceased Pope and supervise his burial; to summon the world's cardinals to Rome; and-- together with 3 other prelates elected by the congregation of cardinals at their first meeting-- to handle the day-to-day management of Vatican affairs.
He has the primary responsibility for preparing the conclave-- including, in modern times, the task of sweeping the Sistine Chapel to ensure that there are no electronic devices in place to eavesdrop on the cardinals' deliberations.
The camerlengo continues with these management tasks through the election of the new Pope, at which time his importance quickly diminishes.
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Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce