Leo XIV Appoints "Extremely Liberal" Archbishop in Poland
Born in Krakow in 1964, he was ordained as a priest in 1988. In 2011, Benedict XVI appointed him as an auxiliary bishop of Krakow.
Pope Francis named him archbishop of Łódź in 2017 and cardinal in September 2023.
Francis' man in Poland
Edward Pentin described Cardinal Ryś on CollegeOfCardinalsReport.com as an extremely liberal bishop and as Poland’s "Pope Francis man". "His elevation to the cardinalate was seen as a reward and encouragement for his attempts to reform Poland's conservative Church."
Pentin added that, since Ryś became a member of the Congregation for Bishops in October 2023, new bishops in Poland have been more progressive than their predecessors. Like Cardinal Ryś, they all strongly promote the Church’s new synodal way.
In October 2023, Cardinal Ryś said that opposition to Pope Francis is "completely unjust" and "always based on one or two phrases taken out of context". He repeated: "It is completely unjust how we treat Francis in our discussions."
Eucharist Must Be Synodal, Not Action of One Priest
In October 2024, Cardinal Ryś said that the liturgical reform had yet to take place. He believes that the liturgy should not be the action of one priest alone, but rather a "synodal" action involving "all".
His vision of the Eucharist is as follows: "If the liturgy has a comprehensible language, the priest is facing the congregation and new books have been published, yet the liturgy still resembles a one-person show, with only a priest present, then the reform has not taken place."
In November 2024, he told Die Tagespost that Christ founded the Church to be synodal: "Jesus gave his Church a constitution based on synodality, hierarchy, collegiality, the Petrine office, and so on."
Any Muslim Welcome in Poland
He is a champion of illegal immigration. In a pastoral letter dated July 2025, he wrote: "Social teaching clearly states that every person has the right to choose where to live and to be respected in that place for their beliefs, culture, language and faith."
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