Congregation For Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs - History

History

The 1793 Congregation had been set up to deal with the exceptional situation that had arisen in France as a result of the French Revolution. After the fall of Napoleon, its competence was extended in 1814 to negotiations with all governments about ecclesiastical matters. Hence the name of Sacred Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs. With the apostolic constitution Sapienti Consilio of 29 June 1909, which was later incorporated into the 1917 Code of Canon Law, Pope Pius X divided the Secretariat of State into three sections, of which the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs was the first. The competence of the Congregation was clarified by being limited, as is stated in canon 255 of that Code to erecting or dividing dioceses and appointing bishops where negotiations with civil governments were involved, and to other matters that the Pope might choose to entrust to it, especially matters connected in some way with civil law and the Holy See's agreements and concordats with states.

Canon 263 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law thus states:

The Office of the Secretariat of State, presided over by the Cardinal Secretary of State, consists of three sections, in the following order:

1. The First Section, headed by the Secretary of the Congregation for Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, deals with the matters that must be submitted to it in accordance with canon 255, leaving other matters to specific Congregations in accordance with their different nature;

2. The Second Section, headed by the Substitute (i.e. Alternate Secretary of State), deals with ordinary matters;

3. The Third Section, headed by the Chancellor of Apostolic Briefs, deals with the despatch of Briefs.

Following the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council, Pope Paul VI suppressed, with the apostolic constitution Regimini Ecclesiae Universae of 15 August 1967 the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs and made the "First Section of the Secretariat of State: Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs", which he renamed the "Council for the Public Affairs of the Church", distinct from the Secretariat of State, but still closely associated with it.

With the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus of 28 June 1988, Pope John Paul II renamed this Council the Second Section of the Secretariat of State or the Section for Relations with States.

In all its forms, the Congregation or Council has been presided over by the Cardinal Secretary of State.