Assistant to the papal throne
Assistant at the Pontifical Throne was an ecclesiastical title in the Roman Catholic Church. It designated a prelate belonging to the papal chapel, who stood near the throne of the Pope at solemn functions.
All patriarchs and some bishops selected by the Pope, were made Assistants to the Pontifical Throne.
In 1862, during the canonization ceremony of the twenty-six Catholic martyrs of Japan, Pope Pius IX elevated all the bishops present to the rank of Assistant to the Pontifical Throne. As such, all Assistants to the Pontifical Throne immediately entered the Papal nobility as Counts of Rome. They ranked immediately below the College of Cardinals and were also Counts of the Apostolic Palace.
The title has not been in use since the Second Vatican Council, following Pope Paul VI's reform of the pontifical household in 1968 that eliminated all previous nobiliary titles.
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Archbishop Tobias Aoun, named Assistant to the Pontifical Throne in 1862
See also
External links
- New Catholic Dictionary
- Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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