James Knox

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=James Cardinal Knox
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
See=Melitene (titular see)|

James Robert Cardinal Knox (2 March 1914 - 18 July 1983) was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and former Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

James Robert Knox was born in Bayswater within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth in Australia. He was a son of John Knox and Emily Walsh, both who were from Ireland. He was educated at the Seminary of New Norcia and later at the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum "De Propaganda Fide", in Rome. He was ordained on 22 December 1941. He served as a staff member of the Vatican Secretariat of State from 1948 until 1950. He was also a staff member of Vatican Radio for a year between 1949 and 1950. He was Secretary to the apostolic delegate in Japan form 1950 until 1953. He was created a Privy chamberlain of His Holiness on 22 July 1950.

Episcopate

Pope Pius XII appointed him titular Archbishop of Melitene and appointed Apostolic delegate in British Africa, with his residence in Mombasa on 20 July 1953. He was consecrate in November of that year in Rome by Celso Cardinal Costantini. He was Internuncio in India and apostolic delegate in Burma and Ceylon from 1957. He attended the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

He was appointed Archbishop of Melbourne on April 13 1967. In 1970 he approved the extension of St. Patrick’s Cathedral's sanctuary into the transept crossing to provide the space required for the liturgy following the Second Vatican Council. The new sanctuary worked admirably for the many ceremonies of the 40th International Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne in February 1973.

He was Created Cardinal Priest of "S. Maria in Vallicella" in the consistory of March 5 1973. That same day he was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. He resigned the pastoral government of the Archdiocese July 1 1974. He took part in the conclaves that elected Pope John Paul I and Pope John Paul II in August and October.

He died in 1983 in Rome, aged 69, and is buried in the cypt of Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral.