Roman Catholic Cardinal. The second of three children of John Knox and Emily Walsh, both of Irish origin, James Robert Knox entered seminary in New Norcia, later furthering his studies at the Pontifical Urbanian Athenaeum De Propaganda Fide in Rome where he was ordained priest by Cardinal Pietro Fumasoni Biondi on December 22, 1941. Named chaplain and vice-rector of the named Propaganda Fide Athenaeum, he was furthermore appointed staff member of the Secretariat of State of the Vatican City, member of the Central Committee for the Holy Year of 1950 and staff member of the Vatican Radio. Named secretary to the Apostolic Delegate in Japan and privy chamberlain of His Holiness on July 22, 1950, Msgr. Knox was appointed apostolic delegate in British Africa with residence in Mombasa by Pope Pius XII, receiving his episcopal consecration with the titular archbishopric see of Melitene on November 8, 1953 from Cardinal Celso Costantini in Rome. Named internuncio in India and apostolic delegate in Burma and Ceylon on February 14, 1957, he acted as co-organizer of the Papal visit to India held between December 2 and 4, 1964. Transferred to the metropolitan see of Melbourne on April 13, 1967 following the retirement of Archbishop Justin Daniel Simonds, he organized the 40th International Eucharistic Congress held in Melbourne between February 18 to 25, 1973. Pope Paul VI created him cardinal priest in the consistory of March 5, 1973 with the title of Santa Maria in Vallicella and appointed him prefect of the Sacred Congregation for Sacraments and for Divine Worship on January 25, 1974. Resigning the pastoral government of the archdiocese on the following July 1, he was named prefect of the newly united Sacred Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship on August 1 of the following year. Papal legate to the 41st International Eucharistic Congress held in Philadelphia, United States, between August 1 to 8, 1976, and special Papal envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress of Kampala, Uganda, and to the celebrations commemorating the first centennial of the Catholic Church establishment there in February 1979, Knox was furthermore appointed president of the Pontifical Council for the Family on August 4, 1981. Special Papal envoy to the National Eucharistic Congress of Nigeria in November 1982, he collapsed during a meeting at the Vatican in mid-May 1983 and was in a coma for the last two weeks of his life due to complications from a cerebral occlusion. Passing away in Rome during the night of June 26, 1983, he was buried with his pallium in the archbishopric crypt of the metropolitan cathedral of Melbourne, Australia, on the following July 6, after the celebration of two solemn funeral masses. The first took place on June 30 at the Patriarchal Vatican Basilica, celebrated by Pope John Paul II, in which twenty two Cardinals and eight Australian bishops, who were in Rome for the ad limina visit participated. The other requiem mass was celebrated in the metropolitan cathedral of Saint Patrick, Melbourne, presided by the local Ordinary, Msgr. Thomas Francis Little, and concelebrated by some thirty prelates from Australia and New Zealand. Among the concelebrants were Cardinal James Darcy Freeman, retired Archbishop of Sydney; Luigi Barbarito, Apostolic Nuncio in Australia; Cardinal Thomas Stafford Williams, Archbishop of Wellington; and Cardinal Edward Bede Clancy, Archbishop of Sydney. The homily was delivered by the named Archbishop Little.