DELEGATO APOSTOLICO. — According to the concept currently in use, the d. a. is a prelate, a titular archbishop, who is sent by the Roman pontiff as his representative, with a permanent commission but without diplomatic character, to the Catholic communities of a given nation (cf. Comunicato della Segreteria di Stato, 8 May 1916: AAS, 8 [1916], p. 213). The d. a. is therefore not generally the residential bishop of a diocese in the territory where he performs his functions, although there are examples of d. a. who have been, or who, according to pontifical decrees, should be, bishops of a diocese included within their territorial jurisdiction; according to the notion given by the CIC itself (can. 267 § 2), even episcopal character is not necessarily joined to the office of d. a. Moreover, as has been mentioned, he does not exercise diplomatic functions: that is, he is the representative of the Roman pontiff to the bishops and Catholic communities, not to the head of the State to which he is sent, and he performs religious, not political, duties. The representatives of the Roman pontiff to governments, appointed on a permanent basis to functions of a political order, are in fact called not delegates, but nuncios or internuncios. For there to be an apostolic delegation in the proper sense, however, the representation with which it is entrusted must by its nature be stable, and not limited in time or by circumstances already foreseen at the time of its establishment.
The function of the d. a. is to watch over the Catholic communities and works of a given nation or region and keep the Holy See informed about them; to communicate the instructions of the Apostolic See to bishops, apostolic vicars or prefects, mission superiors or missionaries, and to supervise their implementation, as well as, in general, the exact observance of all ecclesiastical laws (can. 267 § 2).
The impossibility of personally treating and resolving all questions, and of being present in several places, compelled the Roman pontiffs from the earliest times to entrust others with the task of representing them. This practice became even more frequent when, having acquired freedom, the supreme pontiffs were able to exercise their universal primacy with greater effectiveness. For the most part, however, these were special and temporary delegations, designated according to Roman usage by different terms: missio, legatio, delegatio. The substantial difference between these representations, lacking continuity and permanence, and the present-day apostolic delegations is evident, as is the distinction between the d. a., the legati missi, and the legati a latere. The analogy is deeper, however, with the other forms of stable and permanent representation, such as in antiquity the apostolic vicars, the apocrisiaries (v.) and the legates born, and, in more recent times, the nuncios and internuncios. Like the present-day d. a., the ancient apostolic vicars also represented the Roman pontiff, were invested with episcopal, indeed metropolitan, dignity, had no political duties or diplomatic functions, but watched over ecclesiastical discipline in their territory and, in more serious matters, also served as an organ for transmitting information to and from the Holy See. Unlike the present-day d. a., however, the ancient vicars were residential bishops, and although each new incumbent required apostolic confirmation for the powers proper to his office as vicar, these powers were given exclusively to the bishops of specified sees, and not to others. Finally, the ancient vicars exercised a true and extensive jurisdiction, albeit vicarial, even over the dioceses of their territory. The figure of the apocrisiary agrees with that of the modern d. a. in being a stable representative of the Roman pontiff, lacking ordinary jurisdiction and charged with watching over the integrity of the faith and informing the Roman See about it; it differs from it, however, besides the latter’s ordinarily lacking episcopal character, in another substantial respect: whereas the d. a. is the representative of the Roman pontiff to the churches and bishops, the apocrisiary was the representative of the Roman pontiff at the imperial court, even though for affairs of a religious order. Legates born differ from the d. a. in the same respects noted concerning apostolic vicars, and for another no less fundamental reason: the d. a. have the title and prerogatives of representatives of the Roman pontiff by a concession made directly to their person, whereas legates born obtained that title and the jurisdiction inherent in it through the office to which they were appointed. In their capacity as representatives of the Roman pontiff to the Catholic communities, apostolic nuncios and internuncios perform a function identical to that of the d. a.; in addition to this, however, they are entrusted with representing the pope to civil governments. Finally, it must be observed that, whereas the ancient apostolic vicariates, apocrisiariates, legations born, nunciatures and internunciatures presuppose, by their very origin and the exercise of their activity, a hierarchy of common law, apostolic delegations arose instead in mission territory and generally exercise their functions in regions where the conversion of infidels, heretics or schismatics constitutes the principal task of the Church’s activity.
Before the present-day apostolic delegations arose, the means used by the pontiffs to inform themselves about the possibilities for the life and development of the Church in the pagan, heretical or schismatic world were the Latin bishops, the Latin apostolic vicars or the prefects of missions who already existed and carried out their work in those regions. In particular, the Latin bishops and apostolic vicars of the Ottoman Empire constituted the normal channel through which the pontiffs corresponded with those invested with supreme civil power, initiated, continued and sometimes brought to completion the work directed toward the conversion of the heads of the schismatic Churches and their followers, and informed themselves about the state of the Catholic Church. From this it cannot be concluded that these bishops and vicars were from the outset true d. a. in the modern sense, because they lacked an official and stable mandate constituting them representatives of the supreme authority, and the duties entrusted to them, which are now ordinarily performed by the d. a., were generally occasional and not inherent in a prior and general mandate of representation. It was, however, from these apostolic vicars and bishops that the present-day delegations originated.
From the very beginnings of the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide, ideas and projects were considered which, even if they cannot properly be called anticipations of apostolic delegations, prepared the way for them. On 2 March 1622, Fr. Diego Collado, vice-provincial of the Dominicans in Japan, Fr. Diego di S. Francesco, commissary of the Franciscans, Fr. Antonio di S. Bonaventura, commissary of the Discalced Carmelites, and other missionaries addressed a petition to the Supreme Pontiff, requesting that a prelate be appointed to represent in the East Indies the supreme Head of the Church, with authority superior even to that of the bishops and with the power to decide all disputes, since, owing to the remoteness of the places, it was impossible to submit cases to the judgment of the apostolic tribunals; the project was repeatedly discussed by the S. Congregation of Propaganda Fide and then abandoned, both because of the difficulties arising from the patronage of the Spanish crown and because of the persecutions that afflicted the Church in the Empire of the Rising Sun.
The apostolic delegate to be established in the East Indies was to bear chiefly the character of an appellate judge, delegated by the Apostolic See; but it was also intended that he should be entrusted with the office of executing its mandates, supervising the missions and bishops, and informing the Supreme Pontiff. His office was to be attached to a residential see, and the powers connected with it were to be temporary.
The project that had been impossible to implement in Japan was later put into effect elsewhere, with considerable modifications. In the particular congregations of Propaganda Fide held on 17 and 27 July 1678, it was decided, in accordance with the proposal of F. Pallu, apostolic vicar of Tonkin, to place the six new vicariates into which the missions of the Far East, including Japan, had been divided under two general administrators: one for the missions of China, the other for those of the neighboring countries. The supreme administration of the missions of China was entrusted to Mgr. Pallu, and that of the neighboring countries to Mgr. Pietro de La Motte Lambert. These administrators, called apostolic delegates, were granted broad powers: to visit the vicariates, instruct and ordain clerics, convoke indigenous priests in synod, examine and decide disputes that might arise among the vicariates, and also, in the second instance, cases arising between the vicariates themselves, between secular and regular ecclesiastics, and among the faithful. These apostolic delegates were charged with determining the assignments of the missionaries and could transfer them from one vicariate to another. They were appointed for seven years, but could be recalled even before the expiry of that term, and, in the event of death, could transfer their faculties to others. At the particular congregation of 5 December 1689,
after both administrators had died, it was decided that they should no longer be replaced.
These delegations resembled those of today because, more than in the earlier ones, they notably exercised the functions of transmitting the acts and will of the Holy See, supervising the missions entrusted to them, and informing the supreme authority; they differed from them, however, in essential respects, both because the office lacked stability and because they exercised their jurisdiction within the very sphere of the vicariates.
The first apostolic delegate in the modern sense was Mgr. Arnoldo Bossù, elected apostolic vicar of Aleppo by a brief of 17 June 1762. In the appended instructions, in addition to the faculties deriving from his ordinary jurisdiction as Latin apostolic vicar, he was entrusted with the mandate to supervise all the Catholic communities existing in the territory, whatever rite they might belong to, to oversee the execution of pontifical constitutions, and to inform the Apostolic See. The Instructions expressly stated that the functions of supervising the Eastern communities belonged to the new Latin vicar as representative of the Holy See in the territory comprising the Maronite and Armenian patriarchates. The assignment was not limited in time and was intended to continue even after the death of the person who had first been invested with II. Although, therefore, there was no formal act erecting it as an office distinct from that of apostolic vicar of Aleppo, it was a true apostolic delegation in the modern sense; and the official documents, on the occasion of the appointment of the subsequent apostolic vicars of Aleppo, expressly designate them, for the exercise of their powers among the Eastern communities, as apostolic delegates. The experiment successfully carried out in Syria was then repeated in Mesopotamia, where the apostolic delegation pro Nazione catholica Chaldaeorum was entrusted to the Latin bishop of Baghdad; then in Constantinople, and subsequently beyond the borders of the Ottoman Empire.
The apostolic delegate is therefore, first and foremost, the official and ordinary organ through which the Holy See communicates its will and directives to bishops, religious superiors, the regular and secular clergy, and the faithful: indeed, by virtue of his divine primacy, the Roman pontiff possesses ordinary and immediate jurisdiction over all the faithful and their pastors (can. 218). The apostolic delegation is also the ordinary channel through which the Holy See transmits its rescripts, grants its favors, and sends assistance; it is likewise the normal means of forwarding to the Apostolic See requests and appeals originating in the territory of the delegation. The function of supervision and inspection entrusted to the apostolic delegate concerns whatever may be of interest to the Holy See, so that it may be informed both about the condition, development, needs, and dangers of the individual Churches, and about compliance with its laws, commands, and directives, as well as the advisability of its direct intervention. The principal objects of this function are faith, morals, the discipline of ecclesiastics, general and public disorders, and concord within the clergy and among Catholics in general, so that they may exercise their beneficial influence in the most effective manner. The apostolic delegate is also entrusted with carrying out an unofficial action, that is, offering counsel in an amicable form to bishops, religious superiors, and even laypersons, for the purpose of settling questions, removing abuses, preventing dangers, and promoting the development of the life of the Church.
In exercising these functions, however, the apostolic delegate must leave the local Ordinaries free to exercise their jurisdiction (can. 269 § 1), unless he has been furnished with special and extraordinary faculties to intervene in the government of their communities.
Ordinarily, as has been said, the apostolic delegate is invested with an archiepiscopal title. But even if he lacked episcopal character, as representative of the supreme Head of the Church he would take precedence over all Ordinaries not invested with cardinalitial dignity (can. 269 § 2), and therefore also over patriarchs. If he is a bishop, he may impart the blessing to the people in the churches of the Ordinaries, except in the cathedral, without their permission, and celebrate services there, including pontifical functions, with throne and canopy (can. 269 § 3).
A considerable body of faculties, in themselves reserved to the Holy See, has been wisely joined to this representative function. Their exercise, while implying recognition of the pontifical primacy, tends to foster affection and devotion toward the Holy See and the apostolic delegation itself, so that the faithful, priests, and bishops may find in the latter an easy and ready means of obtaining the necessary dispensations, graces, and favors, without being compelled to apply to the Apostolic See, with delays that are often dangerous or harmful.
At present (1950) there are altogether 23 apostolic delegations, of which 5 (Canada, the Philippines, Great Britain, Mexico, and the United States of America) depend on the Sacred Consistorial Congregation; 8 (Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Jerusalem and Palestine, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey) depend on the Sacred Oriental Congregation; and 11 (French Africa or Dakar, Southern Africa, British East and West Africa, Albania, the Indonesian Archipelago, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania, the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, Korea, Japan, and Indochina) depend on the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda.