Pope Francis appoints Cardinal Cañizares as the new Archbishop of Valencia

The Vatican’s chief liturgical official will return to Spain as Archbishop of Valencia, it was announced today. Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera has been the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments since 2008.

His replacement at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has not yet been announced but after Pope Francis’s election there was speculation that the Italian Archbishop Piero Marini would be given the role.

The controversial Archbishop Marini advised Pope John Paul II on litrugical matters during his papacy.

Ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Valencia in 1970, Cardinal Cañizares served as Bishop of Ávila (1992-2002) and Archbishop of Toledo (2002-08) before Pope Benedict appointed him curial prefect.

He was made a cardinal in 2006.