SANCITYING OFFICE
Holy Scripture
As a Church historian, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś has delivered many homilies and written many books and newspaper articles on the authenticity and historicity of Scripture.1The titles of some of his published works: “One Holy, Universal, Apostolic. Encounters with the History of the Church”, “To Know or Not to Know Jesus”, “Time of Salvation. Liturgy in Everyday Life”, “Take and Listen. On Scripture Becoming Word”, “Key to the Gospel of St. Luke.”
It is difficult to find a homily by Cardinal Ryś that is not strongly rooted in the text of Scripture, as he refers often to it in his preaching. The cardinal stresses that “the Church is based on the Gospel, not on political power,” and urges the constant evangelization of the world, adding that “evangelization stems from the fact that we experience faith as the most important event in our lives. So important that we are unable to keep it to ourselves. This is what the apostles detained by the Sanhedrin are saying: we are unable not to speak of what we have seen and heard! The sooner we find in ourselves an intense experience of faith, that is, an encounter with the Risen Jesus living in the Holy Spirit, the more easily and the more fruitfully we will give ourselves to evangelization.”
The cardinal asks the faithful “not to look for some new Gospel, but to root themselves in the Gospel they have already heard, so that it will be for them like the ground on which they are planted.” The cardinal encourages familiarity with Scripture but believes that familiarity is to be based on three pillars — “Bible, liturgy, community“ — so that Scripture is understood correctly, in a Catholic manner.
The Eucharist
“Worship of the Eucharist,” Cardinal Ryś said during a Eucharistic procession during the celebration of Corpus Christi in 2023, “is not just about eating bread — even the special Bread that It is! Worship of the Eucharist is about being nourished by all that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Perhaps that is why there is so much of the Word of God in the feast of Corpus Christi. Although our attention is focused on the consecrated Bread, yet in this way we discover the logic of God’s revelation. God’s Word becomes Flesh, and the Flesh becomes Bread to be eaten. Therefore, we cannot consume this Body except by also focusing on the Word, which It is! By consuming the Bread, we want to live the Word that the Lord gives us.”
On another occasion the cardinal used the celebration of Corpus Christi to speak about the poor: “If you don’t see the poor, if you don’t share with them from what you have, from your poverty, St. Paul says: You do not respect the Body of the Lord. Because the Body of the Lord is also the Church. We disrespect it when in this Church we first introduce and then reinforce and deepen divisions. And the worst of these divisions is between the rich and influential and the hungry, the thirsty, who have nowhere to live and nothing.”
However, he also emphasizes the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist: “The Eucharistic characters — Bread and Wine — are, as it were, the same as Christ’s humanity. People in Jesus’ time saw a man and needed faith to see God in him. It is exactly the same with us. We see the Bread and Wine — and we need faith to see in them the Person who is God and at the same time Man. The Eucharist is an extension of Jesus’ humanity. And this is the most important thing: the Eucharist makes the presence of the Son of God among us. A presence that requires faith.”
While still auxiliary bishop of Krakow, Ryś explained very precisely the development of the doctrine on the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament in press interviews. He has also pointed to the Eucharist as the only reality that can “put our lives in order.”
However, in 2021 Cardinal Ryś caused a scandal in Poland when, at an Arena of Youth “Reset” event held as part of the Congress of New Evangelization, he failed to follow important norms and canons and was publicly reprimanded for it.
Archbishop Ryś, having 6,500 young people before him, most of whom he knew had not attended Mass for a year and a half due to lockdown, and realizing how little the language of gestures and texts of the liturgy were understandable to these young people, did not observe – as he himself admitted – “all the norms and canons.”
He invited the young people to engage in the prayer of the Mass, making it an intercessory prayer of the participants. Introducing this approach into the penitential part of Mass, Ryś proposed that instead of three times praying “Lord, have mercy on us”, the participants actually acknowledge and confess their sins and sacramentally reconcile with God. At that moment, 150 priests began the ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, i.e. Confession.
Ryś was publicly reprimanded by the Chairman of the Commission for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of the Polish Bishops’ Conference, auxiliary bishop of the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese, Piotr Greger, who reminded the archbishop that “he is a servant of the sacred liturgy and that he is not allowed to add, omit or change anything on his own initiative during the celebration of Holy Mass.” Others praised Ryś’ zeal for evangelization, even if they believed he had erred in disregarding the rubrics.
After the event, the archbishop apologized to those who felt offended or disturbed by the form of the celebration, although he denied it was profane. Ryś explained that his actions were the result of discernment and aimed at involving young people in the Mass.2The meeting had the character of a concert and there were numerous testimonies and speeches at the open air event. Archbishop Ryś informed those present that a Mass was actually being held there and then. He told the youth: “All the elements of the Mass are here, starting with: I belong to you God the Father. The Mass begins with the sign of the cross. Then, in the Mass there is a prayer, which we call the collect. This was your prayer in threes. You prayed, presenting to God, collecting all the intentions. Then at Mass there is an apology for sins: we had confession. Then there is the Word, the Gospel we listened to is the Gospel that the Church reads today at all Masses. (…). So all the elements of the Mass were already there, we just need to bring it to this finale, which is Holy Communion.” Then Holy Communion was indeed distributed. The event stirred up a huge controversy in Poland, and the Commission for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of the Polish Bishops’ Conference summoned the clergyman for an explanation. Finally, the then archbishop apologized for the “spontaneous mass” or “surprise mass,” stressing, however, that “he considered all allegations of profanity to be very unjust.”
In Poland, until 2020 — that is, until the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic — the practice of receiving Holy Communion in the hand was not widely known. Most of the faithful had always received the Body of Christ directly on the tongue. But Grzegorz Ryś, like the vast majority of Polish bishops, then began to encourage the faithful to receive Communion on the hand, in order to avoid infection with the virus.
The Vetus Ordo (Traditional Latin Mass)
Despite the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes issued by Pope Francis , Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś has allowed the continuation of the “pastoral ministry of the Latin tradition“ in his archdiocese. What’s more, after Traditionis Custodes was published, he was only one of two Polish metropolitans to administer the Sacrament of Confirmation in the old rite. He did so despite the fact that several years earlier, in an interview, he had commented on his discomfort with one of the elements of the old rite – namely, the need for the bishop to slap the Confirmation recipient on the cheek.3In the old rite, confirmation candidates receive a light slap on the cheek from the bishop. This gesture symbolized the candidate’s readiness to suffer for the faith and was a reminder of their role as a “soldier of Christ” in the spiritual battle against sin and evil.
Commenting on the papal suggestions contained in Traditionis Custodes, Ryś noted that in the archdiocese of Łódź, “the Mass is celebrated in the traditional Roman rite” in twelve locations, and that it is allowed “due to obedience to the Pope.” In saying this, he was making the point that the dispute surrounding the document is not about the rite, but rather about movements associated with the old Mass that do not accept the provisions of Vatican II.
Consecrated Life
Archbishop Ryś speaks with respect and appreciation for contemplative and consecrated life, as fundamental to evangelization and spiritual support for the Church, but not as something elevated or in any way especially different.
At a symposium in Krakow-Łagiewniki, he highlighted “the courageous life choices of religious that are opposed to modern world values, such as poverty instead of wealth, chastity instead of sex, and obedience instead of authority.”
The metropolitan also pointed to “the importance of prayer and spiritual support offered by contemplative orders.”
Archbishop Ryś has repeatedly stressed that consecrated persons should be a prophetic sign in the world through their devotion and imitation of Christ. In the Cathedral of Lodz during the Day for Consecrated Life, he said: “You are a prophetic sign in the world when you live as consecrated as Jesus Christ.”
He stressed that consecration should not be seen as something that separates those consecrated from others, but as an expression of their faithfulness and love: “One should never view one’s consecration as something that separates me, that makes me different — higher, that puts me above others.”
“Fidelity is that you are consecrated 24 hours a day — day and night, light and darkness. You are consecrated in every situation of life, in every activity of life, in every moment of life, not from time to time, fulfilling some activity!” he also said.
Marian Devotion
Cardinal Ryś repeatedly has invoked the example of the Mother of God:
- “You are to be like Mary the Queen. You are to be a woman who is able, when necessary, to make a gift of herself – behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word,” he said when consecrating one of the virgins of Łódź.
- “Mary’s absolute love for God proves fruitful – she gives birth to Jesus. The same applies to the Church. The Church will be Mother if she is absolutely focused on God, that is, when she is Virgin. Without this, the Church is poor,” he said another time.
- “Mary is the teacher of prayer, which becomes life. This prayer and life are subject to the breath of the Spirit, they are in obedience to the Spirit. Through His word, power, action, it is this prayer and life that glorifies Jesus Christ as Lord. This is the prayer that we are to learn from Mary, and then also teach others in this way,” he said in Piotrkow Trybunalski.
On the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Łódź bishop said: “Mary shows the glorification of God. And the source of God’s glorification is mercy. Mary is the most beautiful image of the Church.” “Today, this woman from whom the Son of God is born, is the Church. The Church is the Mother, the Virgin-Mother. The Church is an extension of Mary in the world,” he said on the feast of the Holy Mother of God.
In addition to his many sermons dedicated to Our Lady, Grzegorz Ryś made numerous pilgrimages on foot with the Krakow faithful to the national shrine of Mary, Queen of Poland in Częstochowa. Already as Metropolitan of Lodz, he established the shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Piotrkow Trybunalski and consecrated the Archdiocese of Lodz to Our Lady of the Snows venerated there.
TEACHING OFFICE
Gender, LGBT, Fiducia Supplicans
Cardinal Ryś rarely speaks on issues related to gender theory. He last shared his opinion on the subject in an article written in 2013 in Tygodnik Powszechny, considered a left-wing Polish Catholic weekly. It’s a rather enigmatic text in which he poses three questions about gender:
1) Doesn’t the Church warn against simply equating the law of nature with biological norms, and doesn’t culture affect our experience of humanity, masculinity, femininity and dignity?
2) When did culture cease to be an expression of the human spirit and become a set of limiting stereotypes? (He asks whether “the development of culture is possible only through the rejection of traditional patterns, and whether human beings can be reduced to the level of culture”).
3) What follows from papal quotes on dialogue and how to put into practice Pope Francis’ encouragement of readiness for dialogue, patience, warmth and acceptance free of judgment?
One can infer from the text that the cardinal wants to maintain a neutral position, taking no sides.
He has made far more frequent statements about homosexuality. A year later, in the pages of the same Tygodnik Powszechny, the cardinal wrote of the need for a pastoral approach to people living in homosexual relationships: “If such a couple asks for baptism for their child, it should be granted, doing everything possible to help this couple, like any other, to raise this child in a Christian manner,” he said.
Ryś stressed that the Church does not recognize homosexual unions as marriages and is against the adoption of children by homosexual couples, but at the same time noted that such couples may need support in raising their children: “There is no statement that those living in a permanent homosexual relationship are incapable of raising a child in a Christian manner,” he wrote. At the time, Bishop Ryś pointed to “the need to change the Church’s sensitivity to different life situations,” and compared the life situations of homosexuals to other difficult family situations, such as remarriage: “After all, children from a subsequent marriage, even a fifth marriage, are baptized, and it’s hard to call a fifth marriage a normal situation.”
In 2016, during a television interview, he recalled the words of St. Paul, which imply that homosexual acts are a grave sin, and the Church does not intend to remove St. Paul from Scripture. In doing so, he stressed that the Church respects any person with homosexual tendencies but added that men with “strongly rooted homosexual inclinations cannot be admitted to priestly ordination.” He does not think that the Church will ever back down from this principle.
In 2019, a journalist for a left-wing daily asked Archbishop Ryś if he would allow an “LGBT march” to the cathedral. The bishop replied: “No, because these marches have their own demands. One of them is marriage equality and same-sex unions. These people, of course, have the right to go and manifest their views, but their destination is the parliament building, not the cathedral. Allowing them to ‘march’ to the cathedral would mean that I agree with their demands. And the Church will never agree to equate homosexual unions with marriage. The issue of pastoral care for LGBT people is another matter.” To date, no official pastoral care has been established in Lodz.
In response to Pope Francis’ declaration Fiducia Supplicans, Cardinal Ryś played down the controversy it sparked by saying that, in his view, “the content of the document does not allow blessings to be given to same-sex couples.” More broadly, he said he found “nothing there to amaze, frighten or fill one with anxiety.”
“It is necessary simply to read the document as it is written,” he continued. “All the comments here are exaggerated and imply both the Pope and the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith have intentions they do not have. Overall, this document is such a classic example of the approach to Pope Francis’ teaching, proving that there are also many circles in the Church who by definition do not believe him, by definition do not trust him, and suspect that Pope Francis wants to make doctrinal changes in the Church. Even if the Pope were to say a thousand times that this is not true, these circles will still not fully believe him. It’s not that the bishops should say ‘we’ll listen to the Pope.’ There is no reason for the bishops to comment on a text that the Pope has signed off on. It must be applied exactly as it is written.” In the interview, the cardinal added that “if someone asks him for a blessing, he will receive it under such conditions as the document allows and under no other conditions.”
Development of Doctrine
Elsewhere in the interview, Cardinal Ryś recalled that doctrine is not changeable, but can develop. “This has been an important topic since ancient times, how doctrinal development differs from change,” he said. “Development is when the same doctrine is understood more deeply. Change, on the other hand, is when it is no longer the same doctrine. It’s a bit like with human development, a person is different in the womb, different when he is five years old and different when he is eighty years old, but it’s still the same person. A person also changes in his understanding of the truth. He understands it more deeply, differently, more fully. It would be a drama if an eighty-year-old understood as much from the truth as a five-year-old. But it is the same truth — development is therefore possible. Change is not. Therefore, it is not possible to say that what was once good is today bad, and vice versa. Just as in dogmatics one cannot say that there are four divine persons.”
On another occasion, he cited the history of the Church’s understanding of war as an example of doctrinal development, leading to Pope Francis’ wish to revise the Church’s teaching on just war because of changing contexts of war and peace.4Cardinal Ryś began with the life of St. Martin of Tours. He cited the story of his refusal to accept money from Caesar and his desire to be released from military service after his conversion and baptism. St. Martin offered to pass in the face of enemies without arms, and the next day the enemies surrendered without bloodshed. The cardinal pointed out the tension between Christianity and military life in Martin, which illustrates the ancient tradition of the Church forbidding catechumens-warriors to kill people. The cardinal went on to describe how, after the Edict of Milan, the Church banned deserting soldiers, declaring soldierly crafts to be decent and even sacralizing them. In the 10th century, the rite of blessing the sword appeared, which was shocking to early Christians. In the pontificals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, prayers of blessing flags and weapons can be found, indicating the belief that war is a danger to a person’s soul. The cardinal also cited the concept of the soldier of Christ, which evolved from a person giving up war to serve Christ, to a professional soldier using weapons as a servant of Christ. St. Augustine recognized just wars as retaliation for injustice. In Poland at the end of the fifteenth century, Stanislaw of Skalbmierz and Pawel Wlodkowic developed the idea of just war, defining the conditions under which a war can be considered just. Cardinal Rys pointed out that the modern Magisterium of the Church, especially the teaching of Pope Francis, is skeptical of the concept of just war in today’s reality, as it emphasizes that it is difficult to speak of just war today due to the changing contexts of war and peace, and criticizes the misuse of the concept of defensive war to justify preventive wars.
During a meeting with Catholic activists gathered in the Congress of Catholics and Catholic Women (formed on the model of the ultra-progressive Central Committee of German Catholics), Cardinal Gregory Rys stressed that the Synod on Synodality is not dogmatic, but pastoral. However, he added that to be pastoral, the process must have a theological background. “We are therefore at the stage not of changing doctrine, but of its development, which in a pilgrim and missionary Church is essential. One must be open to this development,” he said.
Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue
Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś is a leader in ecumenism and interreligious dialogue in Poland. This was already the case before he was elected by the Polish Bishops’ Conference to be chairman of the Council for Religious Dialogue and the Committee for Dialogue with Judaism in 2022.
When asked about the Pope’s “Human Fraternity” document signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019, and whether Christ remains the only path to salvation, the cardinal replied: “I have never heard that the Church has abandoned the idea of the singularity of Jesus Christ, who offers salvation to all. Everyone who will be saved will be saved through the merits of Jesus Christ.”
He added: “The Abu Dhabi Declaration is about something completely different. It is about building human brotherhood. It is about people who have different religious beliefs wanting to be brothers to each other and not enemies, and that the call for this brotherhood is drawn from their religious beliefs. If this is not there, then religions become justifications for war and hatred. And this is the last thing that is inscribed in any religion.”
However, during the European Youth Meeting in Wroclaw, a pilgrim asked him whether there is, or is not, salvation outside the Catholic Church. Rys explained that the phrase “outside the Church there is no salvation” was coined by St. Cyprian in the third century and “referred to people who left the Church, that is, left the Church also because they were scornful of it. They said it was not the Church of Jesus, but one that went to make deals with the world. And they began to create something that was anti-Church, in the modern sense a kind of sect. And then Cyprian said to them, ‘Outside the Church there is no salvation,’ because they had left the community that transmits salvation. And that was the context of that sentence. The problem with this type of statement is that the context is omitted, and people repeat one sentence involuntarily, creating formulas for it that are completely unacceptable.” This sentence perfectly captures the cardinal’s attitude toward other faiths and religions.
During the same meeting, Archbishop Ryś recalled that the modern meaning of the word “catholic” often refers to a denomination, but originally meant universal. He added that there are several bishops in the Lodz area besides him, including Lutheran, Orthodox, and Calvinist. “When I meet with a Calvinist bishop, he tells me that he is a Catholic. It’s not that he belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, he belongs to the one universal Church by virtue of his baptism, and no one will tell him he’s not a Catholic.”
“Ecumenism is about exchanging spiritual gifts,” Rys has said, emphasizing his ecumenical commitment. “If one sees in differences a possible complementarity and an opportunity to learn from each other, and not a reason for religious war, then not only are these differences not a problem, they are even a help.”
On another occasion, commenting on an ecumenical event he organized in Lodz, he said: “We recently had an ecumenical Way of Light in Łódź. It started in a Baptist church. Coming out of that church with me, one of our [Baptist] brothers said: ‘All my life I thought I would never enter that church.’ I think he is no exception. I think that we unfortunately still treat unity, ecumenism, as an optional activity in the Church, and then we are surprised that there are no results in evangelization.”
He has also repeatedly visited Lutherans, Evangelicals and Calvinists in their churches, on one occasion taking off his skullcap out of respect to a Lutheran community.
Cardinal Ryś is also particularly involved in dialogue with the followers of Judaism. The Polish Church has organized a “Day of Judaism in the Church” since 1997, during which Catholics learn about the Mosaic religion. The media face of this event in recent years has become Grzegorz Ryś, who believes that Israel continues to be the chosen people.
“Interreligious dialogue is about each participant deepening in his or her own religious identity,” he said, in announcing the Day of Judaism in 2023. “Dialogue with another helps me better understand my own Christianity. Since the promulgation of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra aetate, we have been experiencing a Copernican revolution in the Church’s teaching on the issue of relations with the followers of Judaism. The document overturned the so-called theology of substitution, according to which God rejected Israel and replaced it with a new People of God, which is the Church. Nostra aetate emphasizes that Israel continues to be the chosen people, because God does not revoke the election. This is the first moment of this upheaval.”
The cardinal explained that another key change relates to blaming Jews for the death of Christ. “Nostra aetate states that Jews are not responsible for Christ’s death — not all Jews who lived in Jerusalem at the time, and even less all Jews who are still alive today. For many centuries, and in some circles even today, it has been very easy to come across the accusation that Jews are God-beaters.” The third change, the Metropolitan of Łódź pointed out, is the document’s condemnation of anti-Semitism in all its forms.
A few years earlier, in 2018, during an academic conference, Ryś gave a lecture in which he said: “It seems to many that the dialogue between the Church and Judaism is an interreligious dialogue. No, it is not an interreligious dialogue!,” the archbishop stressed in his speech. “The Church has an interreligious dialogue with Islam, the Church can have an interreligious dialogue with Buddhism, but not an interreligious dialogue with Judaism. No, it is not the same! The ties that exist between the Church and Israel are incomparable to those we have with followers of other religions.”
He added: “If we cut ourselves off from dialogue with Judaism, we will not understand what Passover is. The Paschal dimension of Christianity is fundamental for a Christian. So we can learn from each other. Undoubtedly, we have a greater need for this learning than the Jews,” he said in a 2023 interview.
In 2024, Cardinal Gregory Ryś was awarded the Menorah of Dialogue Award for his contribution to Catholic-Jewish dialogue by the Coexist association, which promotes attitudes and activities for dialogue between people, cultures, nations and religions.
Due to Poland’s history and society, the country has few followers of Islam, and as a result, Cardinal Ryś rarely speaks about this religion. During one conference in 2024, he said: “To create a fraternal world, what motivates Christians and Muslims is their religion. The fact that we are people of faith should add to our motivation to make this world fraternal.”
Citing Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli tutti, the cardinal said that fraternity is possible when people preserve their diversity and on each side there is a desire to accept from the other what is best. A few years earlier, in 2016, during a speech, he pointed out that all Muslims must not be treated as supporters of the Islamic State.
Priestly Celibacy
Cardinal Ryś has repeatedly emphasized the beauty and value of celibacy, but without explicitly declaring whether he is in favor of maintaining or abolishing priestly celibacy. “Celibacy is a great value, but it is inscribed in the hierarchy of values. In my opinion, when there’s a debate like there is in the Amazon, where people don’t have access to the Eucharist, it’s something that makes you really think. Although, on the other hand, I don’t believe that that [optional] celibacy will result in an avalanche of new vocations to the priesthood. Just look at the Eastern Churches, there is no abundance of vocations there at all,” he said in an interview in 2019.
Ryś wrote an entire book on the history of celibacy, titled simply Celibacy. It was in this book that he stressed that celibacy “does not belong to the nature of the priesthood, although it has a deep spiritual and historical justification.” He explained that celibacy is an expression of chastity, which he defines as “freedom to love.” He pointed out that chastity and celibacy are forms of love for people and God. Ryś stressed that priestly celibacy is the result of a historical process, not an eternal norm. He noted that the Catholic Church recognizes the priesthood of clergy of other denominations who may be married, showing that celibacy is not a necessity for the priesthood. The cardinal expressed his belief that the Church is growing in its understanding of celibacy as a gift from the Holy Spirit. Celibacy, according to Ryś, “is not an abandonment of love, but an expression of it, showing Jesus’ love for the Church.”
“Everything we do in the priesthood is in persona Christi. I don’t just say Mass in persona Christi, but I also live in persona Christi; otherwise we would reduce everything to a few functions. The purpose of seminary is not to teach someone how to say Mass, but how to live in the key of Jesus. The purpose of seminary is to help a person discover that the Lord has given him the charism of celibacy. And if he discovers it, he has the moral right to ask for ordination, knowing that the Church today ordains unmarried men,” he added.
Euthanasia, Abortion and Public Morality
There is no current debate on euthanasia in Poland where it remains illegal, hence Cardinal Ryś has said little on the subject. When he has spoken about it, he has stressed that the Church will not change its teaching. Recalling one of the debates on euthanasia, he recounted: “My master (Father Kracik) was also invited. We sat quietly and listened to the arguments. But finally Kracik couldn’t stand it and said: ‘I understand that you want to introduce euthanasia, but why do you want to force the Church to say that it is good. You want to legislate? Legislate for yourselves, but leave the old Church alone and let the Church tell people who identify with it that it is evil.’”
Ryś has also inferred that, for the Church to ever agree with euthanasia would not be a development but a change of doctrine.”
The issue of abortion in Poland is politically contentious (abortion is allowed only in the case of pregnancies caused by rape or if the mother’s life is in danger). Polish bishops in joint statements have always condemned abortion. “Killing an innocent human being is always a moral disorder; aborting a pregnancy is always a moral disorder,” Ryś said, quoting Pope John Paul II in a speech delivered during large pro-abortion protests in 2020. “The right to life is a right that no legislator can give or take away. Whatever legislation there is in our country, we will follow this commandment, which is the commandment of God” and the Church “carefully reads and understands God’s law. Here there is not a shadow of doubt,” he said.
In 2024, after the change of power in Poland, while praying at the tomb of John Paul II in Rome, Cardinal Ryś referred to a debate over liberalizing abortion that was taking place in the Polish Sejm (upper house). “Let us pray for our parliamentarians to be people of conscience, to respect life,” he exhorted. The cardinal also asked for help for pregnant women, saying that admonishments of pro-life Catholics are accompanied by “real help for mothers expecting offspring, for families who are expecting a child.” He added that every life should be protected from conception to natural death, “including by deed.”
In a 2024 interview with the left-wing Gazeta Wyborcza, Cardinal Rys said: “On the issue of abortion, the Church’s teaching will always be the same: abortion is evil.“ He added that the same is true of the dispute over euthanasia. “We have a tacit expectation that the Church will say: well, yes, it is actually permissible. And why should the Church accept it? If the parliament agrees and votes, I’ll be the first to say: it’s immoral to kill a person; this law is immoral, and a Catholic has no right to apply it. Does this mean that we are in opposition to some government? No. We are only saying that abortion and euthanasia are unacceptable from a moral position. Also, abuse of the Church and abuse of the state in the name of politics is immoral. This does not mean that I am politically involved, even when some people will interpret it that way.”
Archbishop Ryś has also invited the faithful of his diocese to participate in the “Marches for Life and Family,” an anti-abortion demonstration held annually in Polish cities. It is noteworthy that few Polish bishops ever issue such an invitation.
So it is clear that the cardinal believes that Christian morality is the essential foundation of the public common good, and he also believes those who are erring in this area must be told. “You can only defend a person who has committed evil if you first make him aware of it, because any other defense will ultimately harm that person more than help,” he has said, adding that the person should be told he is committing an evil “in such a way that it does not kill him, that it does not destroy him, that it is not a denial of his dignity, but that it calls him to some kind of transformation. This is a great skill,” the Metropolitan of Lodz noted in an address to attorneys in 2019.
Ryś added: “According to what [standard] ought we to look upon and judge evil and moral good? Only according to the moral code that is permitted? Is morality allowed only according to the written law? Morality is accountability not to the law, but to the person. Isn’t the law about our relationship to persons? Is law just a set of abstract norms? Isn’t it about how people relate to each other? To what extent are they responsible for each other? Finally, isn’t it about the person? However, there are questions that the code does not ask, but the conscience does! In these questions, priority is given to the person, not to paragraphs.”
Yet in the context of how to evangelize people today, Gregory Ryś has said that “no conversation about faith should begin with morality.” He added: “Although moral principles are important. However, they must follow from revelation of God in Jesus, in His cross and resurrection. Let us speak first of who God is who has revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and only then of what follows.”
Fraternity, Migration and Climate Change
During one of his homilies, the metropolitan of Łódź encouraged people to open their eyes to see as God sees, and so see every person as a fellow citizen with a home in God. “Fraternity and solidarity are possible, even when there is war all around.” He was referring to the encyclical Fratelli tutti and pointing to the figure of St. Francis of Assisi and Blessed Charles de Foucauld. He cited the same document on another occasion, saying: “Pope Francis, in his new encyclical Fratelli tutti, writes that historical consciousness is dying before our eyes. And where this consciousness dies, new divisions will begin.”
In a 2024 lecture, he spoke of Pope Francis’ three intuitions for building the universal brotherhood of humanity. “The first,” he said, “is that universal brotherhood is not created if you want to create a unified society, according to the thoughts of some elite that supposedly knows what is good for people. Such a model of unity works for hatred, division and rifts.
“The second intuition says that brotherhood is possible when people maintain their homogeneity and there is a desire on each side to accept from the other what is best. Christians dialoguing with Muslims show what is best in Christianity, and Muslims show what is best in Islam.
“The third intuition is that the construction of universal brotherhood, if it is to become something concrete, must begin with the poor. The most excluded. If, in what we build together, we do not reach out to the weakest, then by its very definition we are no longer building universal brotherhood. The common good is only there when everyone is included in it — so also the weakest.”
Migration issues are being talked about more and more in Poland, but still not to the extent they are in Western Europe. Migration only began to be a real social issue after the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022, when several million Ukrainians entered Poland.
Despite this, the Polish bishops, in unison with Pope Francis, have been very vocal in demanding the opening of borders to refugees. Already in 2017, during an open meeting with students, Ryś had said: “What needs to be done, especially in Poland, is to organize thinking and influence thinking. Currently, our dispute over accepting refugees is largely a theoretical dispute. We are arguing about people who are some kind of abstraction for us; it’s a problem we don’t experience on a daily basis. Since we consider ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ, let’s start thinking about refugees in terms of Jesus.”
He added that there is a need for meetings and discussions that “convert” the way we think about the refugee problem; he also recalled that one such activity is the prayer for refugees practiced in the Church in October, during which the faithful try to remember especially those who lost their lives on the road, somewhere in the waves of the Mediterranean Sea.
Quoting the Pope, Cardinal Ryś wrote in the Tygodnik Powszechny in 2023: “It is necessary to organize regular and legal channels of migration. Take the entire migration process out of the hands of criminals and organize it in a proper and decent way that saves human life and dignity.”
In 2021, while illegal immigrants stormed the Polish-Belarusian border, Ryś called for the construction of humanitarian bridges and stressed that “every person has the right to decide where he feels safe and where he wants to stay. A person has the right to live where he wants. A person has the right to migrate. It is not the case that someone can be prohibited from migrating.” At the same time, he stressed that he realizes that only a small portion of migrants storming the Polish border will want to stay in the country. However, if there are those willing to do so, he believed Poland should allow them to do so. In support of his words, he cited the history of the Polish nation, which, according to him, has a great deal of migration experience.
On the initiative of Archbishop Ryś, a collection was organized for the construction of houses for migrants from Ukraine, which were built a few months later, and which the bishop personally consecrated.
Regarding the environment, Cardinal Ryś, like other Polish bishops, organized Laudato si’ Week in his diocese. During his opening speech, he tried to unpack what “ecological conversion” means. He said: “A person who converts puts in order his relationship not only to God and to people, but to the whole creation.” Christian ecology, he added, is about a “space for one’s own conversion, which manifests itself in gratitude, a sense of community and responsibility for the created world.” At the end of that meeting, the bishop and the faithful recited a prayer prepared by the World Movement of Catholics for the Environment.
He also spoke about the encyclical in an interview at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and distinguished between nature and creation.5“The Holy Father makes an important distinction between the terms nature and creation. When we approach the reality around us as ‘nature,’ we do our best to know it, control it and subject it to our power. We want to use it freely, according to our appetites. We want, for example, to decide if and when a person is born and what color his eyes should be. Or — on the other hand — if and when he should die. We have begun to think that we have power over almost everything. Meanwhile, current experience shows that this is not the case at all. There are already 2,500,000 infected people in the world, and 175,000 dead. So where is our knowledge, where is our control, where are all these arsenals of ours? In the Christian message and understanding, nature is a “creation” — so it is the reality behind which God hides: it is He who called it into existence. He “created” it, and creates it constantly, keeping it alive. Part of the reality of creation is ourselves. “Creation” is given to us, and inflicted on us, so that we are more servants than masters. All this Francis has been saying for years. It’s a pity that it hasn’t attracted special attention so far.
GOVERNING OFFICE
Sexual Abuse Scandals
Cardinal Ryś has organized a commission to investigate the history of clerical sex abuse scandals in the archdiocese of Lodz. The research found ten underage victims of priests, and five of the victims were under fifteen-years-old. The Metropolitan of Lodz said that “this is ten victims too many.” He added that these are probably incomplete statistics and that such incidents cause people to turn away from the church.
Cardinal Ryś sent (to be signed) to the 27 deaneries of the Archdiocese of Lodz the papal motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi, a diocesan document (“Principles for the Protection of Minors and the Disabled in the Educational and Pastoral Practice of the Archdiocese of Lodz”), and declarations of respect for the diocesan document. He ordered that the documents be handed over to all diocesan and religious priests and lay people who were involved in any way with children and youth on behalf of the Church. The priests were given a week to send the signed document back to the archbishop.
“By investigating cases of sexual abuse of minors by clergy, we will not bring down any statue. The Church will not lose on this, but win,” then-Archbishop Ryś said.
Communion for the Divorced and “Remarried”
During the discussion of the Polish bishops’ position on Amoris Laetitia, Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś said that “the role of pastors is to form consciences, not to replace them. This is how you have to accompany a person so that he comes to the right discernment in his conscience.”
Asked if Francis in Amoris Laetitia negates John Paul II’s teaching on marriage, he said: “Let me start by saying that all these critics do not remember that the one who canonized John Paul II is Francis, and canonization is an act of infallible action by the successor of Peter, which is done in all the authority of Peter and Paul and the whole Church.
“There is space for development, not change, in the Church’s teaching,” he added, “and development is about deepening what the Church has taught so far. This is always a space, so there is a development of doctrine, but not a change, this is a truth and a process we have known since antiquity. Man experiences development in his life, but he is still the same person. I exclusively read in these terms how Francis teaches in relation to Benedict XVI, John Paul II, Paul VI. So you can see that Francis goes even deeper and even further into the tradition than his critics seem to think.”
In a press interview, when asked to clarify the confusion surrounding Amoris Laetitia, Ryś said: “Francis’ demand to accompany and discern, in the opinion of some, means a departure from moral norms. Many think that if we allow at least one couple living in a non-sacramental union to receive Communion — recognizing after a long discernment that this is possible in their case — we negate the indissolubility of marriage. Only, this is not the case at all. I think these fears flow from a misunderstanding of Francis, who says: the indissolubility of marriage is an absolute and indisputable norm.
“However, in the particular situation of divorced people living in a new relationship, it is possible to have the kind of discernment that would allow one to recognize that these particular people are doing everything possible not to magnify the evil. And if they are doing everything that is possible in this particular situation, it means that they are on the path of true conversion (…) Changing the attitude to man in the Church is the essence of Francis’ reform. He does not want to change the norms, the teaching is unchangeable. The norms are fixed. The Pope, on the other hand, is asking for a change in the approach to man to apply this law. Because the goal cannot be the mere fulfillment of the law, but man’s relationship with God and people. The law is supposed to help, but not replace this relationship (…) In the debates that are going on in the Church today, I see the fear that by thinking in this way we will depart from the requirements of the Gospel. We will not depart if we understand correctly that the discernment Pope Francis encourages is to be dependent on the particular situation.”
Women’s Ministry in the Church
Cardinal Ryś has not voiced his own opinion on the ordination of women as deacons or priests. When speaking on the subject, he has always cited current Church discipline and teaching.
But he has repeatedly made it clear that women are vitally needed by the Church. In 2023, he became the first bishop in Polish history to establish and bless female ministers of Holy Communion. A year earlier, he had convinced the Polish bishops that “there is no justification for women not to serve as catechists, acolytes and extraordinary ministers.”
When asked about the role of women in the Catholic Church, the Metropolitan of Łódź recalled a lecture by Czech priest, Father Dr. Tomás Halík, a Czech philosopher, sociologist, and theologian, known for his advocacy of religious tolerance and interfaith dialogue and for being an adviser to the late Czech President Václav Havel: “Father Halík stated that in the nineteenth century, the Church lost its workers. Then there was the twentieth century, in which essentially the Church lost the elites. Whereas now […] there is a great danger that it will loose women. What has always been the strength and power of the Polish Church, that is, the faith handed down in the family, is very seriously threatened today.”
In 2023, Ryś organized a Polish Congress of Leaders and Pastors of Women’s Communities. At the event, he said: “If we were to create such a Church in which a woman is less respected than a man, this is a measure of our disobedience to God in the Church.”
In an interview, Cardinal Ryś was asked where the place of women was in the Church. He answered: “Wherever the Holy Spirit empowers them to be, from what he gives them in charisms, graces. Probably the simplest answer is that their place is wherever there is no need for the power of ordination. This is the limit of women’s activity.”
He added: “The sacrament of Holy Orders is given only to men in the Church. Pope Francis has established two commissions to study the diaconate for women. So far, the main message from the work is that since the sacrament of Holy Orders is a natural unity; it is not very clear why someone could be ordained as a deacon and then denied higher ordination.
“On the subject of the priesthood, on the other hand, Pope John Paul II had already made a clear statement. He stated that the sacrament of ordination to the presbyterate is reserved only to men in the Church, and the Church has no authority [his emphasis] to change this. This is not the will of the people, conditioned by culture or era. It does not constitute discrimination.”
The cardinal stressed that the power of ordination “is not the whole reality of the Church, including when it comes to the sphere of responsibility, governance” and that ordination “must be looked at in the right way — not from the side of power, but of service.”
He said all other tasks and functions women can perform in the Church and there is “no problem with this. After all, activity in the community of the Church does not fundamentally derive from the sacrament of ordination, but from the sacrament of baptism!” And he stressed that “without women in the public sphere, the Church will be soulless, very one-sided. It will be downright dramatic. I’m working through the issue of women a bit myself, also thanks to Pope Francis, who recently appointed three women to the Dicastery for Bishops.”
Synodality
Cardinal Ryś is an enthusiastic proponent of a “synodal Church.”
“The Church must be synodal, also because by definition it is missionary, and its mission must be undertaken communally. Synodal means communal,” he said in 2023.
“Paul VI, in his exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, stressed that it is always the Church — as a community — that evangelizes. Meanwhile, if we go down to this most local level which is the parish and ask who evangelizes, the answer will be: the pastor, and sometimes maybe a movement. And this is a mistake.
“The Church as a community evangelizes, and that means that we are all called to do so. The obligation to participate in the mission of the Church derives from the universal priesthood, not just from the ministerial priesthood obtained by ordination. And the good fulfillment of this mission is possible under the condition of synodality. But even synodality is not an end in itself, but a means. And everything in the Church is and must be subordinated to the mission. And this is why Francis contrasts the synodal Church so sharply with the clerical Church.”
In another interview, when asked if synodality could be introduced at the episcopal level so bishops listen as well as speak, he replied: “This is a huge issue: how to put synodality, collegiality and hierarchy together in practice. The bishop is a member of the college of bishops, and besides that, he is the head of the local church, whose body is animated by the Holy Spirit, in every member from the moment of baptism. How to create such structures so that all those who make up this local Church can speak out? How to ensure that the Bishops’ Conference is not the only body that is important in discerning decisions?”
He has described synodality as “a prophetic sign to the world.”
“The man who lives today in a world that is either individualistic, globalist or populist has the chance to receive from the Church a beautiful experience of community that will lead him out of the drama of loneliness,” he said.
Cardinal Ryś has also implied rather cryptically that the German synodal path was not the way to go. “I think that all these fears cease when we talk about the synod as it is, not as we imagine it to be,” he said. “Many of these objections are the result of earlier projections of the synod, mixed up a bit with the vision of the German synodal way, etc. The more truth there is about this synod actually happening, the more hope there is for it to happen in Poland as well.”
- 1The titles of some of his published works: “One Holy, Universal, Apostolic. Encounters with the History of the Church”, “To Know or Not to Know Jesus”, “Time of Salvation. Liturgy in Everyday Life”, “Take and Listen. On Scripture Becoming Word”, “Key to the Gospel of St. Luke.”
- 2The meeting had the character of a concert and there were numerous testimonies and speeches at the open air event. Archbishop Ryś informed those present that a Mass was actually being held there and then. He told the youth: “All the elements of the Mass are here, starting with: I belong to you God the Father. The Mass begins with the sign of the cross. Then, in the Mass there is a prayer, which we call the collect. This was your prayer in threes. You prayed, presenting to God, collecting all the intentions. Then at Mass there is an apology for sins: we had confession. Then there is the Word, the Gospel we listened to is the Gospel that the Church reads today at all Masses. (…). So all the elements of the Mass were already there, we just need to bring it to this finale, which is Holy Communion.” Then Holy Communion was indeed distributed. The event stirred up a huge controversy in Poland, and the Commission for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of the Polish Bishops’ Conference summoned the clergyman for an explanation. Finally, the then archbishop apologized for the “spontaneous mass” or “surprise mass,” stressing, however, that “he considered all allegations of profanity to be very unjust.”
- 3In the old rite, confirmation candidates receive a light slap on the cheek from the bishop. This gesture symbolized the candidate’s readiness to suffer for the faith and was a reminder of their role as a “soldier of Christ” in the spiritual battle against sin and evil.
- 4Cardinal Ryś began with the life of St. Martin of Tours. He cited the story of his refusal to accept money from Caesar and his desire to be released from military service after his conversion and baptism. St. Martin offered to pass in the face of enemies without arms, and the next day the enemies surrendered without bloodshed. The cardinal pointed out the tension between Christianity and military life in Martin, which illustrates the ancient tradition of the Church forbidding catechumens-warriors to kill people. The cardinal went on to describe how, after the Edict of Milan, the Church banned deserting soldiers, declaring soldierly crafts to be decent and even sacralizing them. In the 10th century, the rite of blessing the sword appeared, which was shocking to early Christians. In the pontificals of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, prayers of blessing flags and weapons can be found, indicating the belief that war is a danger to a person’s soul. The cardinal also cited the concept of the soldier of Christ, which evolved from a person giving up war to serve Christ, to a professional soldier using weapons as a servant of Christ. St. Augustine recognized just wars as retaliation for injustice. In Poland at the end of the fifteenth century, Stanislaw of Skalbmierz and Pawel Wlodkowic developed the idea of just war, defining the conditions under which a war can be considered just. Cardinal Rys pointed out that the modern Magisterium of the Church, especially the teaching of Pope Francis, is skeptical of the concept of just war in today’s reality, as it emphasizes that it is difficult to speak of just war today due to the changing contexts of war and peace, and criticizes the misuse of the concept of defensive war to justify preventive wars.
- 5“The Holy Father makes an important distinction between the terms nature and creation. When we approach the reality around us as ‘nature,’ we do our best to know it, control it and subject it to our power. We want to use it freely, according to our appetites. We want, for example, to decide if and when a person is born and what color his eyes should be. Or — on the other hand — if and when he should die. We have begun to think that we have power over almost everything. Meanwhile, current experience shows that this is not the case at all. There are already 2,500,000 infected people in the world, and 175,000 dead. So where is our knowledge, where is our control, where are all these arsenals of ours? In the Christian message and understanding, nature is a “creation” — so it is the reality behind which God hides: it is He who called it into existence. He “created” it, and creates it constantly, keeping it alive. Part of the reality of creation is ourselves. “Creation” is given to us, and inflicted on us, so that we are more servants than masters. All this Francis has been saying for years. It’s a pity that it hasn’t attracted special attention so far.
