Apostolic expeditors (in full, in Latin ''Expeditionarius literarum apostolicarum, Datariae Apostolicae sollicitator atque expeditor''; in Italian simply ''Spedizionieri'') are Roman Curial officials who attend to the sending of Papal Bulls,

Papal Brief A papal brief or breve is a formal document emanating from the Pope, in a somewhat simpler and more modern form than a papal bull. History The introduction of briefs, which occurred at the beginning of the pontificate of Pope Eugene IV (3 Marc ...

s and

Papal Rescript Papal rescripts are responses of the pope or a Congregation of the Roman Curia, in writing, to queries or petitions of individuals. Some rescripts concern the granting of favours; others the administration of justice under canon law, e. g. the i ...

s emanating from the

Apostolic Chancery The Apostolic ChanceryCanon 260, ''Code of Canon Law'' of 1917, translated by Edward N. Peters, Ignatius Press, 2001. ( la, Cancellaria Apostolica; also known as the "Papal" or "Roman Chanc(ell)ery") was a dicastery of the Roman Curia at the ser ...

, the

Dataria The Apostolic Datary (Latin: ''Dataria Apostolica'') was one of the five ''Ufficii di Curia'' ("Offices of the Curia") in the Roman Curia of the Roman Catholic Church. It was instituted no later than the 14th AD. Pope Paul VI abolished it in 1967. ...

, the Sacred Paenitentiaria and the

Secretariate of Briefs The Secretariate of Briefs to Princes and of Latin Letters, or simply the Secretariate of Briefs, was one of the offices of the Roman Curia abrogated in 1967 during Pope Paul VI's reform of the Pontifical court. It was divided into two sections. ...

History

In a restricted and specific sense, expeditors or expeditioners are laymen approved by the Dataria, after an examination, to act as agents for bishops or others before the Dataria or Apostolic Chancery. They are members of the Roman Court. They differ from solicitors as well as from

procurator Procurator (with procuracy or procuratorate referring to the office itself) may refer to: * Procurator, one engaged in procuration, the action of taking care of, hence management, stewardship, agency * ''Procurator'' (Ancient Rome), the title o ...

s or agents in general, who transact business with the

Roman Congregations In the Roman Curia, a congregation ( lat, Sacræ Cardinalium Congregationes) is a type of department of the Curia. They are second-highest-ranking departments, ranking below the two Secretariats, and above the pontifical councils, pontifical co ...

. A solicitor, strictly speaking, is an assistant to a procurator, doing the mechanical work of preparing documents. An expeditor is more concerned with matters of favour, privileges, dispensations and so on, than with cases in litigation. It has been the practice of the Dataria and Apostolic Chancery to carry on business only with authorized agents or expeditors, whose office it is to draw up and sign the necessary documents, receive and forward the answer given. They receive a certain fixed fee for each transaction, while procurators and solicitors generally receive a monthly stipend. The number of expeditors has varied. Cardinal Pacca, pro-datarius, decided in 1833 that the number, which was then one hundred, should be regulated by the amount of business to be transacted. Circa 1900 there were about thirty. In reorganizing the Roman Court,

Pope Pius X Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of ...

deprived these expeditors of their exclusive right to appear before the Dataria and Apostolic Chancery.

Sources

* {{Cite CE1913 , wstitle=Apostolic Expeditors , first=Andrew B. , last=Meehan , volume=5 Catholic ecclesiastical titles Officials of the Roman Curia