Holy See

This page or section needs to be cleaned up. Please help clean the page if you can. For tips on making this article better, read "How to edit a page" and "How to write Simple English pages". (December 2024)

This article may have too many red links. You can help Wikipedia by writing articles to help lower the number of red links.

Holy See Sancta Sedes  (Latin) Santa Sede  (Italian)
Flag of Vatican City, and of the Holy See Coat of arms of the Holy See during sede vacante
Anthem: Inno e Marcia Pontificale  (Italian) "Pontifical Anthem and March"
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction	Diocese of Rome Worldwide[a] 41°54.2′N 12°27.2′E / 41.9033°N 12.4533°E / 41.9033; 12.4533
Official languages	Latin[1]
Working language	Italian[2]
Religion	Catholic Church
Demonym(s)	Papal Pontifical
Type	Apostolic[note 1] Theocracy[note 2]
Government	Unitary theocratic Catholic elective absolute monarchy[3][4][5][6]
• Pope	Sede vacante
• Cardinal Secretary of State	Pietro Parolin
• Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church	Kevin Farrell
• President of the Governorate of Vatican City	Raffaella Petrini
Sovereign entity under international law
• Apostolic see	1st century by Saint Peter ("Prince of the Apostles")
• Papal primacy	Early Church – Antiquity (Canon law; legal history)
• Donation of Sutri	728 (territory in Duchy of Rome by Lombard King Liutprand)
• Donation of Pepin	756 (sovereignty in Duchy of Rome reaffirmed by Frankish King Pepin)
• Papal States	756–1870 1075: Dictatus papae 1177: Treaty of Venice (sovereignty reaffirmed by Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire)
• Prisoner in the Vatican	1870–1929 (under the Kingdom of Italy)
• Vatican City	1929– (Lateran Treaty with Italy)
Website www.vatican.va
Coat of arms during the papal interregnum (sede vacante) from 21 April 2025.

The Holy See (Latin: Sancta Sedes, "holy seat") is the the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City State, with the Pope as its head. It consists of the Pope and the Roman Curia. It is metonymically called as "the Vatican".

Every episcopal see is seen as holy and the Eastern Orthodox Church calls all of its sees "holy" or "sacred" (ἱερά). "The Holy See" (definite singular) usually refers to the see of Rome, which is also called "the Apostolic See". While "Apostolic See" can refer to any see founded by any of the Apostles, the term is in this case refers to the see of the bishop seen as successor of Saint Peter, one of the Apostles.

Aside from Rome, the archiepiscopal See of Mainz, which was also of electoral and primatial rank, is the only other Western see that bears the title of "Holy See", although this usage is less common.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ↑ "About the Holy See". 20 July 2022. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
2. ↑ "Background Notes, the Holy See". 1995. Archived from the original on 10 March 2024. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
3. ↑ "Internet portal of Vatican City State". Vatican City State. Archived from the original on 24 May 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
4. ↑ Cite error: The named reference factbook was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
5. ↑ Robbers, Gerhard (2006) Encyclopedia of World Constitutions Archived 4 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-0-81606078-8. p. 1009.
6. ↑ Nick Megoran (2009) "Theocracy" Archived 9 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, p. 226 in International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, vol. 11, Elsevier ISBN 978-0-08-044911-1