Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church

The Camerlengo is the administrator of the property and revenues of the Holy See; his responsibilities formerly included the fiscal administration of the Patrimony of St. Peter. As regulated in the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus , Camerlengo is always a Cardinal. His heraldic arms are ornamented with two keys (one gold, one silver) in saltire surmounted by an ombrellino, a canopy or umbrella of alternating red and yellow stripes, which are also the arms of a Sede Vacante (i.e. a Papal interregnum).

Until the 11th century, the Archdeacon of the Roman Church was responsible for the administration of the property of the Church (i.e., the Diocese of Rome), but its numerous ancient privileges and rights had come to make it a frequent hindrance to independent action on the part of the Pope; as a result, when the last Archdeacon Hildebrand was elected to the papacy as Gregory VII in 1073, he suppressed the Archdiaconate and the cardinal entrusted with the supervision of the Apostolic Camera (Camera Apostolica), i.e., the temporalities of the Holy See, became known as the Camerarius, or Chamberlain.

Chief among the present responsibilities of the Camerlengo is the formal determination of the death of the reigning Pope; the traditional procedure for this was to strike gently the Pope's head three times with a silver hammer and to call his baptismal name ("Albine, dormisne?", i.e. "White One, do you sleep?"). After the Pope is declared dead, the Camerlengo removes the Ring of the Fisherman from his finger and cuts it with shears in the presence of the Cardinals, and also destroys the face of the Pope's official seal. These acts symbolize the end of the late Pope's authority. The Camerlengo then notifies the appropriate officers of the Roman Curia and the Dean of the College of Cardinals. He is then involved with the preparations concerning the conclave and the Pope's funeral.

Until a successor Pope can be elected, the Camerlengo serves as acting head of State of the Vatican City. He is not, however, currently responsible for the government of the Roman Catholic Church during a sede vacante. Universi Dominici Gregis placed that task in the hands of the College of Cardinals — although this power of government is extremely limited, being merely enough to allow Church institutions to continue to operate and perform some basic functions without making any definitive decisions or appointments that are normally reserved to other powers delegated by the Pope. The Camerlengo, though, does keep his office during the sede vacante, as opposed to the rest of the Roman Curia. The only other person who keeps his office is the Major Penitentiary.

Three Camerlengos have been elected Pope: Cosimo Gentile Migliorati (Pope Innocent VII) in 1404, Gioacchino Pecci (Pope Leo XIII) in 1878 and Eugenio Pacelli (Pope Pius XII) in 1939. Two others, Cencio, who was elected as Pope Honorius III in 1216, and Rinaldo Conti di Segni, elected as Pope Alexander IV in 1254, did not occupy that post at the time of their elections to the papacy (Cencio was camerlengo from 1188 until 1198, while Rinaldo from 1227 until 1231).

The current Camerlengo is His Eminence Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, S.D.B., appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007.