Pole among new cardinals named by pope
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
21.05.2018 12:34
Polish archbishop Konrad Krajewski is on the list of 14 Roman Catholic prelates who are due to be elevated to the rank of cardinal next month.
![St. Peter's Square, Vatican City. Photo: Diliff [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/390c91b9-7156-48c5-b6c0-7bdada7b0347.file "St. Peter's Square, Vatican City. Photo: Diliff [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
St. Peter's Square, Vatican City. Photo: Diliff [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Announcing his decision on Sunday, Pope Francis said the ceremony to elevate the nominees would take place on June 29.
Archbishop Krajewski is the first Pole to have been picked for cardinal by Pope Francis.
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday congratulated Archbishop Krajewski. He wrote on Twitter: “It is joyous news for the Polish Church and for Poland. Our great tradition of Solidarity continues to be present in the Archbishop’s mission of Papal Almoner and his service for the poorest.”
Krajewski, 54, served as a papal master of ceremonies from 1998 to 2013. Pope Francis, shortly after taking over as head of the Roman Catholic Church, appointed him Papal Almoner, or the head of a Vatican charity that runs a hostel for the homeless and provides a wide range of facilities for them. The almoner’s duties include carrying out acts of charity and raising money to fund them.
On the day of his appointment as the Vatican almoner almost five years ago, Archbishop Krajewski is said to have been told by the pope: “You can sell your desk. You don’t need it. Don’t wait for people to come ringing. You need to go out and look for the poor.”
The archbishop has given up his flat outside the Vatican to a Syrian refugee family and now sleeps in his office.
He regularly supports poor families to cover their electricity and gas bills and has spearheaded an initiative to build public showers and a hairdresser’s salon for the homeless in the Vatican.
Born in Łodź, central Poland, Krajewski was ordained a priest in 1988. After two years of pastoral work in Poland, he went to Rome to continue his studies. Having obtained a doctorate in theology he returned to the Łódź diocese to serve as master of ceremonies for the local archbishop. In 1999, Pope John Paul II appointed him a papal master of ceremonies.
(mk/gs)