On Saturday, he appointed Mario León Dorado (52) as the supportive so-called coadjutor archbishop.
As such, he has the right to succeed the current incumbent Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero, who will turn 75 next May.
López is accused of sexually inappropriate behavior against adult women, which he denies.
During the church investigations, the cardinal has been letting the official affairs rest since the end of July.
In this context, Léon Dorado had already been appointed papal transition administrator.
With over 425,000 square kilometers, the Archdiocese of Rabat is almost a fifth larger than the Federal Republic of Germany and counts about 22,000 Catholics under 33 million inhabitants.
López became head of the Archdiocese in 2017; in 2019, Pope Francis appointed him as a cardinal.