Pope names Archbishop Arthur Roche to Head Liturgy Congregation

Pope Francis has renewed the leadership of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW), promoting the dicastery’s secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche, to Prefect of the Vatican’s liturgy department.

The English prelate was appointed coadjutor Bishop of Leeds, England, in 2002 by Pope John Paul II. He succeeded Bishop David Konstant in 2004 when the latter resigned for reasons of health.
In 2002, Archbishop Roche was elected chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). Under his leadership, ICEL completed a new, more faithful English translation of the Roman Missal, in line with the CDW’s Instruction Liturgiam authenticam. After winning the endorsement of the English-speaking episcopal conferences around the world, the new translation was approved by the Holy See in 2010.

Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Roche Secretary of the CDW, where he served under Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera (until 2014) and Cardinal Robert Sarah, whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis in February of this year.

Along with a new Prefect, Pope Francis has named a new Secretary for the Congregation, Bishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, OFM, at the same time granting him the title of Archbishop-Bishop emeritus of Tortona. Bishop Viola was appointed to Tortona by Pope Francis in 2014. He obtained his licentiate, and then his doctorate in Sacred Liturgy from the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Liturgy at Sant’Anselmo in Rome. As Bishop, he has served on the Italian Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for the Liturgy.

Finally, Pope Francis appointed Monsignor Aurelio García Macías, formerly the head of the office in the Congregation, as under-secretary of the CDW, “with episcopal character,” assigning him the titular see of Rodon. A priest of the Archdiocese of Valladolid, Spain, Monsignor Macías, like Archbishop Viola, received his Doctorate in liturgy from the Anselmo. He has served in the CDW since 2015.