In Pectore

In pectore (Latin for "in the breast/heart") is a term used in the Catholic Church to refer to appointments to the College of Cardinals by the Pope 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 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. Four popes, Innocent X, 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 the Iron Curtain, in central and Eastern Europe.