Leo appoints Cardinal Roche, same-sex ‘blessing’ supporters to Dicastery for Consecrated Life
The new members include 5 cardinals – including Cardinal Arthur Roche – 5 bishops, 4 priests, 4 religious women, and one lay woman.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV today appointed members to the Vatican office overseeing religious orders and the Latin Mass communities, including some cardinals who have opposed the traditional Mass and supported blessings for same-sex couples.
As outlined in the Holy See Press Office bulletin on June 24, Leo XIV appointed 19 new members to the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (DICLSAL).
The new members include five cardinals, five bishops, four priests, four religious woman and one lay woman.
Among the cardinals are certain notable figures, such as:
Cardinal Arthur Roche: prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship under Pope Francis who led the late pontiff’s charge against the traditional Mass and enforced restrictions on it.
Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero: Archbishop of Rabat who has supported blessings for same-sex couples in light of Fiducia Supplicans, adding that synodality is a “prophetic sign” for the world and that opponents of its decisions are “morally obligated to support” them.
Cardinal Giorgio Marengo: the second youngest cardinal and the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, the Catholic territory encompassing Mongolia numbering around 1,000 Catholics.
Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa: Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, famous for offering himself as a hostage exchange in 2023 and considered papabile in the May 2025 conclave.
Cardinal Jaime Spengler: Archbishop of Porto Alegre and president of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil along with the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). Spengler has given mixed messages about his support for the highly controversial Amazon rite while also supporting Fiducia Supplicans’ blessings for same-sex couples.
Other non-cardinalatial appointments to the dicastery include male and female religious superiors, along with Luisa Muston, a lay woman who leads the secular institute called the Missionaries of the Infirm “Christ the Hope.”
It is quite normal for cardinals to be appointed to various offices of the Roman Curia, particularly so for those who are already working in the Curia or who have occasion to be in Rome more frequently.
On May 9, Pope Leo already requested all Curia leaders, members, and secretaries to remain temporarily in place until further notice, meaning that a notable number of cardinals are already members of the dicastery.
But the names nevertheless always contain significance and can highlight preferences identified by the reigning Pontiff for particular Roman offices.
Pizzaballa is perceived as a conservative member of the College of Cardinals, as is Marengo, while others named by the Pope today would align more with liberal or “moderate” sectors on varying issues.
Roche is already prominent and well known for his opposition to the traditional Mass.
But Spengler and Romero have gained less notoriety in the English-speaking world. Romero was raised to the episcopate by Pope Francis in 2018, made cardinal in 2019, and participated most recently in the Synod on Synodality.
After Fiducia Supplicans and the furor over blessing same-sex couples, Romero deviated from the Africa-wide rejection of the document led by Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, and later defended his position on the text when asked by this correspondent.
The document became one of the most hotly contested of Pope Francis’ pontificate, with many theologians and prelates calling on Pope Leo to issue a formal clarification of the text.(...)
Spengler has also defended the text. In a 2023 interview, he commented that that Church “can’t deny” blessings on same-sex couples, adding that the Church must “meet every authentically human need.”
More uniquely, Spengler has been linked to the controversial “Amazon rite” of the liturgy. Created a cardinal in December, Spengler told LifeSiteNews in October that married deacons and priests may be a help for regions with few priests, adding that the Amazon rite and indigenous inculturation of the liturgy is taking place in Brazil.
He confirmed that the local Amazonian bishops were “speaking of the possibility of a specific rite for the Amazon region – this is a fact.” However he also sought to link back to the universal Church, noting that “on the other hand there is also something that says the following guidance: today in the Latin Church we have the Roman rite and the Roman rite must be inculturated in the different realities.”
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