UDITORE DI SUA SANTITÀ. - L'U. di S.S. (Auditor S.mi Domini Nostri Papae, whence the false translation Uditore Santissimo, iudex sacrarum cognitionum, cognoscens vice sacra) is one of the four palatine prelates (together with the Maggiordomo di S. Santità, the Maestro di camera, and the Maestro del S. Palazzo), who holds the office of intimate counselor to the Pope in judicial matters. He is part of the noble Pontifical Family (v.).
In ancient times this was an office of great importance, because it exercised superior jurisdiction in all civil and criminal causes. There was the right to appeal to the Pope's Auditor against all decisions of the tribunals and Congregations, inasmuch as he could, in the Pope's name, annul them. For this reason the Pope received him in private audience twice a week and chose him among the most capable jurists. But such jurisdiction was too extensive for a single man; it was therefore limited on several occasions and gradually lost importance, especially from the beginning of the 19th century. Under Benedict XIV, the U. di S. S. had been given a new assignment, with his appointment ex officio (Oct. 17, 1740) as Secretary of the renewed particular Congregation on those to be promoted to the episcopate (Bullarium Benedicti XIV, I, Prato 1845, p. 10).
Leo XII abolished all the attributions of the U. di S. S. regarding the power to reform the sentences of the Tribunals and Congregations (cf. motu proprio: Dopo le orribili calamità, Oct. 5, 1824; Bullarii Romani continuatio, VIII, Prato 1854, p. 133 ff.). After him, Gregory XVI in his Regolamento organico per l'amministrazione della giustizia civile (Acta Gregorii XVI, IV, Rome 1904, p. 43) and in his Regolamento legislativo e giudiziario per gli affari civili of Nov. 10, 1834 (ibid., p. 340 ff.) established the cessation of the contentious jurisdiction of the U. di S. S. However, all other faculties and attributions in matters not belonging to the contentious forum were preserved to him. Pius IX, by edict of Card. Antonelli, dated March 11, 1854 (nos. 60 and 61 of the Giornale di Roma) stripped the U. di S. S. of other attributions in the matter of the distribution of dowries. Blessed Pius X with the motu proprio Romanis pontificibus of Dec. 19, 1903 (Acta Pii X, I, Rome 1905, p. 113) entrusted to the S. Congregation of the Holy Office the task of examining those to be promoted to the episcopate: consequently the U. di S. S. also lost the office of secretary of the Congregation erected for this purpose. Benedict XV by chirograph of June 28, 1915 (AAS, 7 [1915], p. 325) established that the Secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura should also hold the office of U. di S. S., as has remained in the current organization.