Rolandas Makrickas

Rolandas Makrickas (born 31 January 1972) is a Lithuanian prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore since 2025. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 2006 to 2021, when he was given responsibility for reorganizing the administration of the basilica. He was granted the personal title of archbishop in 2023 and made a cardinal in 2024.

Biography Early life and education Rolandas Makrickas was born on 31 January 1972 in Biržai, Lithuania, the youngest of five children.

He entered Kaunas Priest Seminary in 1990, the second year it operated, and beginning in 1991 lived at the St. Casimir Lithuanian College in Rome while studying philosophy and theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. where he joined in the Church's delivery of social services and managed a construction project. In that role he participated in the reorganization of the Vatican's financial and administrative functions. The pope left a meeting to offer him the post in a brief hallway conversation.

On 23 February 2023, the pope made him titular bishop of Tolentino with the personal title of archbishop. Makrickas received his episcopal consecration on 15 April from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, with co-consecrators Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, Archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore, and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra.

On 20 March 2024, ending Makrickas' role as commissioner and redefining the role of the Basilica's canons,

Pope Francis announced on 6 October 2024 that he planned to make him a cardinal on 8 December, a date that was later changed to 7 December.

On 7 December 2024, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, assigning him as a member of the order of cardinal deacons the deaconry of Sant'Eustachio.

In February 2025, Makrickas visited Lithuania for the first time after becoming a cardinal and together with two other Lithuanian cardinals Audrys Bačkis and Sigitas Tamkevičius held a mass in the Vilnius Cathedral on 16 February, commemorating the Independence Day of Lithuania.

He was named in the Testament of Pope Francis as having been given the instructions for Francis' burial at Santa Maria Maggiore.

He participated as a cardinal elector in the 2025 papal conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

He succeeded as archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore upon the 80th birthday of his predecessor, Cardinal Ryłko, on 4 July 2025.