PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS. - From the name itself it is understood that through them the Supreme Pontiff entrusts to certain expert persons some special assignment concerning activities proper to the Church.
There are various commissions which, because they depend immediately on the person of the Pontiff, are honored with the title of "pontifical." The most important ones are enumerated here.
I. PONTIFICAL COMMISSION OF SACRED ARCHAEOLOGY
Pius IX on 6 Jan. 1852 instituted a special Commission of sacred archaeology, giving it the faculties necessary for the secure protection and supervision of the cemeteries and ancient Christian buildings of Rome and of the Papal State, for the systematic and scientific excavation and exploration of those same cemeteries, and for the preservation and custody of whatever might be found and brought to light by the excavations and works.Pius XI, with the motu proprio of 11 Dec. 1925 (AAS, 17 [1925], p. 619), enlarged and strengthened the Pontifical Commission with the active participation of other members who, corresponding from various regions and nations, might give it a precious contribution of studies and the possibility of multiplying the means and the purposes for which it was constituted. Furthermore, he confirmed the exclusive right of the Pontifical Commission to protect and supervise the cemeteries and ancient Christian buildings of Rome and its suburb, as well as their excavation and exploration. The Pontifical Commission, by means of its own journal, brings to public knowledge the results of the excavations and the illustration of the cemeteries and monuments of subterranean Rome. It is composed of a president (who is the cardinal vicar of Rome), who with pontifical approval appoints a vice-president, of effective commissioners, among whom the Pope appoints the secretary of the Pontifical Commission (the monsignor sacristan of His Holiness is by right an effective commissioner), and of corresponding commissioners, all by pontifical appointment; it is divided into 4 sections: worship, administration, direction of the excavations, and official publications.
By the Lateran Pacts its authority was extended over "the catacombs existing in the soil of Rome and of the other parts of the territory of the Kingdom" (art. 33 of the Concordat).
Guglielmo Felici
II. PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL COMMISSION (Pontificia Commissio de re biblica)
An organ of the ecclesiastical Magisterium that promotes and directs biblical studies. It was constituted by Leo XIII with the apostolic letter Vigilantiae of 30 Oct. 1902 (Acta S. Sedis, 35 [1902-1903], pp. 234-238). The spread of an excessive biblical criticism, which had insinuated itself even into the Catholic field, suggested to the Pontiff the idea of such an Institute, to which he assigned a threefold task: 1) to promote effectively among Catholics the study of the Bible, taking advantage of the convincing results obtained by the most recent research; 2) to safeguard with the weapons of a sound and wise criticism the sacred interests of Holy Scripture; 3) to resolve with acuteness and discretion emerging questions and problems.The Biblical Commission is composed of a certain number of cardinals (at present 5), consultors (about 30-40) and a secretary, who presides over the sessions of the consultors and dispatches the necessary business of the Commission. The seat of the Biblical Commission, formerly in the palace of the Holy Office, is today in the Vatican palaces. The official organ of the Commission's publications is, according to the rescript of 15 Febr. 1909, the AAS (previously it was the Revue biblique). Pius X granted on 23 Febr. 1904 to the Commission the right to confer academic degrees in Holy Scripture (Scripturae Sanctae: Acta S. Sedis, 36 [1903-1904], pp. 530-32). The program of examinations, established for the first time in 1905 (ibid., 37 [1905], pp. 126-29), found in 1911, with a notable broadening of the subjects, its definitive form (AAS, 3 [1911], pp. 47-50; 296-300; cf. also the supplement in AAS, 19 [1927], p. 160). With the apostolic letter Cum Biblia Sacra of 15 Aug. 1916, Benedict XV subordinated the Biblical Institute and the Commission de restituenda Vulgata in a certain way to the Biblical Commission; Pius XI with a motu proprio of 30 Sept. 1928 restored to the Biblical Institute absolute independence.
Leo XIII and Pius X had granted to the Biblical Commission ample competences regarding the emerging biblical questions and controversies provoked by modern biblical criticism.
From 13 Febr. 1905 until 17 Nov. 1921 the Biblical Commission issued on this subject 14 decrees (decisions) and two declarations in the form of answers to questions or doubts proposed, collected in the Enchiridion biblicum, Rome 1927. There followed under Pius XI, until 30 Apr. 1934, two further decrees: 18 in all.
While until then the documents issued by the Biblical Commission were of a rather negative character, marking the limits within which Catholic exegesis must confine itself, and bore upon one or another particular point of the vast biblical field, from 1940 onward, on the contrary, they are rather of a positive nature and embrace the whole biblical field, giving general norms for the study and interpretation of the Sacred Books and a strong impulse to intensify biblical studies in their whole complex.
Consequently the form of these recent documents also differs essentially from that of the preceding ones. They present themselves in the form of a short treatise after the manner of an instruction or Commemorarium on the questions agitated. Thus the letter to the archbishops and bishops of Italy of 20 Aug. 1941 (AAS, 33 [1941], pp. 465-72) and the epistle to Cardinal Suhard of Paris of 16 Jan. 1948 (AAS, 40 [1948], pp. 45-48).
BIBL.: sources
Atanasio Miller
III. PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS FOR THE DRAFTING OF THE CODE OF EASTERN CANON LAW
Pius XI, considering that the preparatory work for the drafting of the Code of Oriental Canon Law, over which studies a cardinalitial commission had presided, was completed, that the observations of the Oriental Ordinaries on the schemata of the canons had already arrived, and that various volumes of the sources had already been published, established that the definitive codification of Oriental canon law must proceed, and by a document dated 17 July 1935 (v. S. Congreg. for the Oriental Church, in AAS, 27 [1935], p. 306) he constituted a P. C., composed of certain cardinals, a secretary and various consultors, which must examine the aforesaid observations of the Ordinaries, determine the text of the canons and provide for the drafting of the Code, and then send the individual titles and books, drafted by it, to the Oriental Ordinaries, in order to request their votes, and, having obtained them, proceed thereafter to the definitive drafting of the Code.The C. (like the preparatory one before it) is publishing the material used for the codification, in the imposing collection of sources of Oriental canonical codification (of which 33 vols. have so far been published). In this collection, furnished with important studies and monographs, are found, arranged according to the various rites, the sources of Oriental canon law, some of which are unpublished or difficult to locate.
IV. PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS FOR RUSSIA
On 20 June 1925 Pius XI (see the communiqué of the S. Congregation for the Eastern Church in AAS, 18 [1926], p. 62) established within the S. Congregation for the Eastern Church a Commission pro Russia, having competence for all questions or causes concerning Russians.In 1930 (6 April), considering the ever greater development of this Congregation and the ever greater care required by the conditions and the cause of the Russians, with the motu proprio "Inde ab initio" (AAS, 22 [1930], p. 153) he separated the P. C. from the S. Congregation (though without excluding between the two bonds of work and mutual aid). The same Pius XI, with the motu proprio "Quam sollicite" (AAS, 27 [1935], p. 65), dated 21 Dec. 1934, established that only the affairs and causes concerning Russians who dwell in their homeland are reserved and assigned to the P. C., and that it, by reason of its importance, be attached to the S. Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs and that the secretary of this Congregation be its president. Besides the president, it is made up of three other members. The same motu proprio establishes that Russian refugees, who previously were subject to the P. C., are now subject to a special "section" of the S. Congregation for the Eastern Church.
V. PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS OF ASSISTANCE
In the audience of 22 Jan. 1945, Pius XII established the P. C. di Assistenza, combining in it the P. C. Profughi, instituted on 18 Apr. 1944, and the P. C. Assistenza Reduci. On 6 Nov. 1945, by a note of the Secretariat of State, the Supreme Pontiff established that the P. C. for the State of Vatican City should assume the power to lay down regulatory norms and to exercise the broadest discipline bothover personnel, over contracts and over the other legal and administrative matters within its competence.
BIBL.: sources
VI. PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS FOR DIDACTIC AND RELIGIOUS CINEMATOGRAPHY
It was established by Pius XII in 1948 to examine cinematographic works which, intended for the illustration of Christian doctrine and the teachings of the Catholic Church, are subject to the revision of the Holy See. This Pontifical Commission has an international character.
VII. PERMANENT PONTIFICAL COMMISSION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HISTORICAL AND ARTISTIC MONUMENTS OF THE HOLY SEE - It was established by Pius XI in 1923 with the purpose of providing for the conservation of the monuments of the Holy See which are of historical and artistic importance. The highest representatives of the art and culture of the Holy See are called to be members of this C., which is presided over by the foriere maggiore.
VIII. PONTIFICAL COMMISSIONS HERALDRY FOR THE PONTIFICAL COURT
It was created by Benedict XV with a dispatch of the Secretariat of State dated 1 June 1915 to examine, check and update the lists of the patriciate and the Roman nobility, for admission and invitations to the sacred functions of the Chapel, etc. It is presided over by the mons. majordomo, and the master of the Chamber of His Holiness is always a member (who at present, during the vacancy of the office of majordomo, holds its presidency).IX. For other pontifical commissions:
P. C. FOR THE REVISION AND EMENDATION OF THE VULGATE: v. VOLGATA.
P. C. CENTRAL FOR SACRED ART IN ITALY: v. ARTE SACRA, PONTIFICIA COMMISSIONE CENTRALE PER L'.
P. C. FOR THE AUTHENTIC INTERPRETATION OF THE CODE OF CANON LAW: v. CODEX IURIS CANONICI.
P. C. FOR THE STATE OF THE VATICAN CITY: v. VATICANO, STATO DELLA CITTÀ del.
For the commissions constituted within the Sacred Congregations: v. CONGREGAZIONI ROMANE, SACRE. Guglielmo Felici