Pope Francis named Archbishop Arthur Roche as the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Archbishop Roche, 71, has worked in the divine worship congregation since his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
He succeeds Cardinal Robert Sarah who served as the congregation’s prefect for six years until Pope Francis accepted his resignation in February at the age of 75.
Archbishop Roche has acted as a go-between for the pope and Cardinal Sarah in liturgical issues. He was entrusted with writing a commentary to the 2017 motu proprio “Magnum principium.”
The document shifted the responsibility of translating liturgical texts to bishops’ regional and national conferences. The commentary came out along with the publication of the “motu proprio.”
In 2019, the pope appointed Archbishop Roche as a member of the team to examine appeals on “delicta graviora,” the gravest crimes dealt with by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which include the sexual abuse of minors.
He was an auxiliary bishop of the English Diocese of Westminster from 2001 to 2002 when he was named coadjutor bishop of Leeds in West Yorkshire. He served as bishop of Leeds from 2004 to 2012.
The Vatican has also announced the appointment of Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola and Bishop-elect Aurelio García Marcías as the Secretary and Under-Secretary, respectively, of the same congregation.
Archbishop Viola, 55, a Franciscan, served as custodian of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi and former president of Assisi Caritas before Pope Francis appointed him bishop of Tortona, northern Italy, in 2014.
Bishop Marcías was born on March 28, 1965, in Pollos (Spain), and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Valladolid in 1992.
He obtained a Licentiate in Philosophy from the University of Salamanca and a Doctorate in Liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome.
He was Archdiocesan Delegate for Liturgy and Rector of the Seminary of Valladolid.
Since Sept. 1, 2015, he has served at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, at which he became Office Manager in 2016.
