The Holy See has announced the appointment of Monsignor Arthur Roche as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The hitherto Secretary of this Congregation succeeds Card. Robert Sarah, whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on February 20.
In addition to the appointment of the prefect, the Pope has also appointed Monsignor Vittorio Francesco ViolaO.F.M. as secretary of the said congregation, conferring on him at the same time the title of Archbishop-Bishop Emeritus of Tortona.
Finally, Msgr. Aurelio García MacíasThe new Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, until now Head of Office of the aforementioned Congregation, has been appointed Undersecretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with episcopal rank and assigned the titular see of Rotdon.
Msgr. Arthur Roche
A native of Batley Carr, in the English diocese of Leeds, Bishop Arthur Roche, 71, was ordained a priest in 1975. His ministerial beginnings were linked to various parishes. In 1979 he became Secretary, Vice-Chancellor of the Diocese of Leeds. He completed a doctorate in Spiritual Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Returning to Great Britain, he became spiritual director of the seminary, Venerable English College and in 1996 was appointed Secretary General of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales.
In 2001 Pope John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Westminster and Bishop of the titular Diocese of Rusticiana. A year later he was appointed coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Leeds, the diocese of which he became titular after the resignation of Bishop David Konstant in 2004.
Benedict XVI appointed him in 2012 Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of which he now becomes the head. He is also a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
