James Knox

Early years

Knox was born in Bayswater, Western Australia. He was a son of Irish–born John Knox and his wife Alice Emily, née Walsh. Attending Catholic schools in Perth, Knox applied to the Archdiocese to study for the priesthood, but there was rejected because it was cheaper to recruit and educate priests in Ireland. He successfully applied to become a priest at the Benedictine Territorial Abbey of New Norcia, and completed his secondary schooling at St Ildephonsus' College, before entering the seminary in 1936. By September that same year, he transferred to the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum in Rome.

Ordained priest on 22 December 1941, he pursued postgraduate studies, obtaining doctorates in theology (1944) and canon law (1949). Unable to return to Australia during World War II, he had been assigned to Propaganda College staff, becoming a vice-rector in 1945. 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 and appointed to the rank of monsignor on 22 July 1950. He was Secretary to the Apostolic Delegate in Japan from 1950 until 1953.

Episcopate

Pius XII appointed him Titular Archbishop of Melitene and Apostolic Delegate in British Africa on 20 July 1953. He was consecrated in November of that year in Rome by Cardinal Celso Costantini. He was Internuncio in India and Apostolic Delegate in Burma and Ceylon from 1957 where he was involved with the expansion of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Knox attended the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

On 13 April 1967, with no direct pastoral experience, Knox was appointed as the fifth Archbishop of Melbourne. Following decrees of the Second Vatican Council, in 1970 Knox approved the extension of St Patrick's Cathedral's sanctuary into the transept crossing to provide the space required for the reformed liturgical rites. The new sanctuary worked admirably for the many ceremonies of the 40th International Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne in February 1973. Knox reorganised the structure of the archdiocese, establishing four regions headed by auxiliary bishops, the creation of 12 archdiocesan departments headed by episcopal vicars as well as the establishment of a Senate of Priests and other advisory bodies. During his episcopacy as archbishop, Knox was also instrumental in the creation of the Melbourne College of Divinity and later, some of the constituent parts which became the Australian Catholic University.

Cardinal

On 5 March 1973 Paul VI named Knox Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Vallicella. In early 1974, Knox was appointed Prefect of both the Congregations for the Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and took up his appointment in March of that year in Rome. On 1 July 1974 his resignation of the pastoral episcopacy of Melbourne was accepted. By 1975 Knox had merged both congregations. He was appointed in 1973 as President of the Permanent Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses. In 1978, he took part in the August and October conclaves which elected both John Paul I and John Paul II respectively. In 1981 John Paul II appointed Knox as the inaugural President of the reconstituted Pontifical Council for the Family, replacing the Pontifical Committee for the Family.

In 1982 his health declined and in May 1983 he became seriously ill with a circulatory problem. He died, aged 69, on 26 June that year in Rome and was buried in the crypt of St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. A 1974 portrait of Knox by Melbourne artist Paul Fitzgerald is held by the cathedral.

Honours