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Latin phrase used by the Catholic Church

In pectore (Latin for "in the breast/heart") is a term used in the Catholic Church for an action, decision, or document which is meant to be kept secret. It is most often used when there is a papal appointment to the College of Cardinals without a public announcement of the name of that cardinal. The pope reserves that name to himself. The Italian language version of the phrase – in petto – is sometimes used. When the name of a new cardinal is announced or made public, it is sometimes said to be published. Since the practice arose in the sixteenth century its use has varied greatly. Some popes have used it rarely or not at all, while others have used it regularly. In the first half of the 19th century, Pope Gregory XVI appointed half of his 75 cardinals in pectore and left several unidentified at his death.

Since the fifteenth century, popes have made such appointments to manage complex relations among factions within the Church, when publication of a new cardinal's name might provoke persecution of the individual or of a Christian community or, when the identity of the new cardinal is an open secret, to signal defiance of government opposition or stake out a diplomatic or moral position. Over the centuries, popes have made in pectore appointments in consideration of government and political relations in a wide variety of nations, from Portugal and several European states to the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Once his appointment is published, the precedence of a cardinal appointed in pectore is determined by the date of the appointment, not the announcement. This reflects the principle that he has been a cardinal from the earlier date and that membership in the College of Cardinals depends on the decision of the pope, not any ceremony or ritual. The announcement allows the cardinal to receive and wear the symbols of his office, use the titles appropriate to his rank, and to perform the functions specific to a cardinal, most importantly, if otherwise qualified, to participate in a papal conclave. Should the pope die without publishing an appointment he has made in pectore, the appointment lapses.

In the early history of the College of Cardinals, all cardinals appointed were published as a matter of course. Under pressure to maintain a delicate network of alliances in the last years of Western Schism, beginning in 1423 Martin V withheld the names of some he created cardinals, the first in pectore appointments. efn|Salvador Miranda, who self publishes a compendium of information about the College of Cardinals, objects to considering these appointments in pectore because Pope Martin shared the names with the other cardinals, though the customary distinction is whether a cardinal's name has been made public. and Martin did make names public in a formal way at a later date. For example, in 1426, to meet the terms established by the Council of Constance (1414–18), he named three French and three Italian cardinals, and four more who were English, German, Spanish, and Greek. He kept the names of four more secret, a Spaniard and three Italians, one of them his nephew, which would have been another source of contention. He published these additional names in November 1430, just three months before his death. Paul III later named five more cardinals in pectore, all of whose names were published within a few years. Pius IV created a cardinal in pectore on 26 February 1561 and became the first to fail to publish such an appointment. Although in pectore appointments were not uncommon in the 17th century, all such appointments were soon published until Innocent XII named two cardinals in 1699 whose names were never published. On 26 April 1773, Clement XIV created eleven cardinals in pectore, none of whom were published. As anti Catholic hostility among various governments became common, in pectore appointments became much more common during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Previously cases of unpublished in pectore appointments had only occurred when a pope died shortly after creating the cardinal, but popes began to wait much longer to publish such appointments creating a greater likelihood that a name would remain unpublished. On 23 June 1777 Pius VI created two cardinals in pectore and lived another 22 years without publishing their names. In the course of 23 years, Pius VII created twelve cardinals in pectore whose names he published and none whose names went unpublished, though two others died before he published their names. Leo XII made eight in pectore appointments in just six years and all were published. When the reign of Pius VIII ended unexpectedly after just 19 months, he had created six cardinals, and another eight in pectore whose appointments died with him. Gregory XVI created 81 cardinals, 29 of them in pectore, of which six were unpublished.

In The Shoes of the Fisherman (1963) by Morris West, a Ukrainian, Kiril Pavlovich Lakota, arrives in Rome and is revealed to have been appointed a cardinal in pectore by the previous pope. In Vatican: A novel (1986) by Malachi Martin, a pope on his deathbed reveals that he had named the central character, Richard Lansing, a cardinal in pectore. In Father Elijah by Michael D. O'Brien, the titular character is appointed bishop in pectore and sent to his new, remote diocese in order to evade arrest for the framed murder of his friend. In The Secret Cardinal (2007) by Tom Grace, the pope enlists a cardinal's godson, former Navy Seal Nolan Kilkenny, to rescue a prelate named a cardinal in pectore twenty years earlier from a Chinese prison. In Conclave (2016) by Robert Harris, Vincent Benítez, a Filipino serving as Archbishop of Baghdad, arrives just before the start of a conclave with a document that proves he was named a cardinal in pectore by the late pope. To explain this unusual procedure, Harris has the dean of the College of Cardinals remind a cardinal that the late pope "revised the canon law on in pectore appointments shortly before he died".