Pope names Archbishop Arthur Roche as one of 16 new cardinal-electors

Pope Francis has this morning named Archbishop Arthur Roche, head of the Vatican’s liturgy office, among 16 new cardinal electors to be installed during a consistory at the Vatican on Saturday, August 27.

The pope made the announcement at the end of his weekly Sunday Regina Coeli prayer from a window in the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter’s Square.

Archbishop Roche, 72, has been Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) since May 2021. He was Secretary of that congregation from 2012 to 2021. Hee was the ninth Roman Catholic Bishop of Leeds from 2004 to 2012, having served previously as Coadjutor Bishop of Leeds and before that as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Westminster. He became an archbishop when he joined the CDW in 2012.

The full list of new cardinal electors are:

• Archbishop Arthur Roche, prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;
• Bishop Lazarus You Heung-si,; prefect of the Congregation for Clergy;
• Archbishop Fernando Vérgez Alzaga, president of the Governorate of the Vatican City State and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State;
• Archbishop Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille, France;
• Bishop Peter Okpaleke of Ekwulobia, Nigeria;
• Archbishop Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, of Manaus, Brazil;
• Archbishop Filipe Neri António Sebastião di Rosário Ferrão of Goa e Damão, India;
• Bishop Robert Walter McElroy of San Diego, California;
• Archbishop Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva, of Dili, East Timor;
• Bishop Oscar Cantoni of Como, Italy;
• Archbishop Anthony Poola of Hyderabad, India;
• Archbishop Paulo Cezar Costa of Brasília, Brazil;
• Bishop Richard Kuuia Baawobr of Wa, Ghana;
• Archbishop William Goh Seng Chye of Singapore;
• Archbishop Adalberto Martínez Flores of Asunción, Paraguay; and
• Bishop Giorgio Marengo, the Apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, in Mongolia.

The pope also named five new cardinals who are over the age of 80, and thus will not be electors:

• Archbishop Jorge Enrique Jiménez Carvajal, Archbishop Emeritus of Cartagena (Colombia).
• Archbishop Lucas Van Looy sdb, Archbishop Emeritus of Ghent (Belgium).
• Archbishop Arrigo Miglio, Archbishop Emeritus of Cagliari (Italy).
• Father Gianfranco Ghirlanda sj (Italy).
• Monsignor Fortunato Frezza (Italy).