A week after removing Cardinal Mauro Gambetti from the Vatican Basilica, Leo XIV has filled the vacancy. The Holy See bulletin today publishes the appointment of Mons. Vittorio Francesco Viola, O.F.M., until now secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City, archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Peter, and president of the Fabric of St. Peter. To replace him at Divine Worship, the Pope has chosen the Spaniard Mons. Aurelio García Macías, until today undersecretary of the same dicastery.
On October 3, the Pope transferred Gambetti to the archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto without announcing a successor, which opened a week of speculation in Rome. None of it was correct. St. Peter’s passes from a Conventual Franciscan to a Friar Minor, and Vatican liturgy gains a Spaniard in its second tier.
Viola, the liturgist from Assisi
Born in Biella in 1965, Viola has belonged to the Umbrian province of the Friars Minor since 1991 and was ordained a priest in 1993 by Mons. Luca Brandolini, a close collaborator of Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the post-conciliar liturgical reform. He has taught liturgy at the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm and at the Theological Institute of Assisi, where he also presided over Caritas. There he was met by Francis during his 2013 visit.
Bishop of Tortona since 2014, he was called to Rome in May 2021 as secretary of the then Congregation for Divine Worship, with the title of archbishop, in the same package of appointments that elevated Arthur Roche to prefect. From that post he has accompanied the entire implementation of Traditionis custodes, published just two months after his arrival.
García Macías, a man from Valladolid at the pinnacle of liturgy
Aurelio García Macías was born on March 28, 1965, in Pollos (Valladolid) and was ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Valladolid on September 20, 1992. He holds a licentiate in Philosophy from the University of Salamanca and a doctorate in Liturgy from St. Anselm, with a thesis on presbyteral ordination in the Byzantine and Roman rites. He served as diocesan delegate for Liturgy from 1997 and as rector of the Seminary of Valladolid between 2011 and 2015.
Benedict XVI appointed him a consultor of Divine Worship in 2010. In 2015 he joined the dicastery, under Cardinal Robert Sarah, and in 2016 was named head of office. In May 2021 Francis made him undersecretary with episcopal character and titular see of Rotdon; he received episcopal ordination on July 11 of that year in Valladolid Cathedral at the hands of Cardinal Ricardo Blázquez. He presided over the Spanish Association of Professors of Liturgy, translated Piero Marini’s Liturgy and Beauty into Spanish, and was the town crier for Holy Week in Valladolid in 2025.
Continuity at Divine Worship
The change leaves intact the team that Roche built in 2021: the secretary moves on to St. Peter’s and his place is taken by the undersecretary who has worked alongside him for five years. Anyone expecting Leo XIV to make a turn in liturgical policy will have to look elsewhere. The novelty is at the Basilica, where Viola inherits a Fabric of St. Peter and a Chapter marked by the tensions of the Gambetti period.