Pontifical Yearbook

PONTIFICAL YEARBOOK. — Official repertory of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, the Roman Curia, and the papal court, compiled annually at the Secretariat of State. Its origins date back to 1716, when the Chracas printers began publishing the Notizie per l'anno..., containing the principal data and lists of persons relating to the hierarchy of the Church, the Curia, and the court. This publication, which became increasingly complete in subsequent years, was interrupted between 1798 and 1817 (in some years of the French occupation it was replaced by an Almanacco per i dipartimenti del Tevere e del Trasimeno), but resumed in 1818. From 1850, the A. P. began to appear from the printing house of the Rev. Apostolic Camera, containing information on the hierarchy and administration of the Papal States and compiled by the editorial office of the Giornale di Roma. Suspended in 1870, two years later the Monaldi printing house began publishing the Gerarchia cattolica e la Famiglia pontificia per l'anno..., carrying in an appendix further information concerning the Holy See. In 1885 printing was taken over by the Vatican Printing Press, and it bore (1899–1904) the designation “official edition.” In 1912 the title A. P. was restored (“official publication” until 1924). In the years 1912–24 it also contained brief explanatory notes on the dicasteries of the Curia and on certain court dignities, resumed according to modified criteria from 1940.

The A. opens with the series of the Roman Supreme Pontiffs “according to the chronological succession of the Liber Pontificalis and its sources, continued up to the present”: in recent years, corrected and annotated, in accordance with the findings of historical scholarship, by Msgr. A. Mercati. This is followed by the hierarchy proper (Supreme Pontiff, Sacred College of Cardinals, patriarchates, residential and titular archbishoprics and bishoprics, abbeys and prelatures nullius dioeceseos, apostolic administrations ad nutum S. Sedis, prelates of the Eastern rite with ordinary jurisdiction, apostolic vicariates and prefectures, missions sui iuris, custody of the Holy Land); the Orders, Congregations, and religious Institutes; the Roman Curia (Sacred Congregations, tribunals, offices); the representations of the Holy See and the diplomatic corps accredited to

the same; the permanent commissions; the Pontifical Chapel; the household of His Holiness; the offices and palatine administrations; the equestrian Orders; the State of Vatican City. It concludes with a substantial appendix of useful lists, the list of dignitaries deceased up to the end of December, and the indexes (alphabetical, subject, and schematic). The publication constitutes a panorama of ecclesiastical organization throughout the Catholic world, supplied with statistical information and contained in a dense 16mo volume printed by the Vatican Polyglot Press, illustrated with the portrait and coat of arms of the reigning Pontiff, the annual medal of the pontificate, and the coats of arms of the cardinals. Luigi Huetter