KRAKóW (POLAND)
The Pillar [Washington DC]
November 26, 2025
By Luke Coppen
Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś is heading to Poland’s best-known archdiocese
In a blow to fans of ecclesiastical nicknames, Pope Leo XIV has named the Polish churchman dubbed the “Lynx of Łódź” as the next Archbishop of Kraków.
Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, whose surname means “Lynx” in Polish, has led the Archdiocese of Łódź since 2017. The pope appointed him Nov. 26 as the archbishop of Poland’s best-known archdiocese, whose previous leaders include Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II.
Was the cardinal’s move to Kraków unexpected? Where does Ryś sit on the ecclesiastical spectrum? And what are people saying about the appointment?
Let’s take a closer look.
An unexpected appointment?
Polish Catholics have considered Ryś a possible successor to Kraków Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski since at least July 2023, when Pope Francis unexpectedly named Ryś a cardinal.
Francis did not exactly shower Poland with red hats during his almost 13-year pontificate, so it was a clear signal of papal favor. It was also surprising as the Argentine pope passed over more senior Polish Church leaders, including Poznań’s Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki, the then-bishops’ conference president, and Jędraszewski.
Ryś’s elevation created an unusual situation in which the 59-year-old outranked Poland’s 15 other metropolitan archbishops, with the exception of Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz of Warsaw, who retired in November 2024 and was replaced by Archbishop Adrian Galbas.
Ryś has served since November 2020 as a member of the Dicastery for Bishops, the powerful Vatican department responsible for selecting prelates worldwide. In 2023, the dicastery welcomed a new leader: Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the future Leo XIV.
Ryś rubbed shoulders with the next pope not only at the dicastery, but also in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall, where both men attended the 2023-2024 synod on synodality. Ryś was a papal appointee at the event, giving further traction to the idea that he was destined for higher office.
Ryś’s background also marked him out specifically as a strong contender for the role of Kraków archbishop. He was born in the southern Polish city in 1964. He was ordained a priest of the archdiocese in 1988. He was named an auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 2011. He is, in other words, a Kraków man through and through.
Another figure mentioned for the role was the papal almoner Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. But Krajewski is from Łódź, so an appointment there would make more sense if he were looking to leave Rome.
Other names mentioned by Polish media included Bishop Sławomir Oder, the former postulator of the cause of Pope John Paul II, and Kraków auxiliary Bishop Damian Muskus.
But it was no real surprise when Pope Leo ultimately opted for Ryś.
Where is he on the Church spectrum?
Placing Ryś on the liberal-conservative spectrum familiar to Anglophone Catholics is not straightforward. That’s because ideological dividing lines are drawn somewhat differently within the Polish Church.
Ryś is enthusiastic about synodality, which would seem to mark him as liberal. But what he appreciates about it is that it offers lay Polish Catholics a chance to be heard in what, for historical reasons, is a strongly clergy-driven Church.
He doesn’t support synodality because he hopes it will lead to women deacons or a revision of Catholic sexual morality, as do many Western European liberal Catholics. But his positive view does mark him as something of an outlier among the Polish bishops, who generally regard the concept with suspicion.
Ryś is an outlier in other respects, too. For example, he has championed the permanent diaconate, making the Łódź archdiocese one of the minority of Polish dioceses that ordain permanent deacons. This would be nothing out of the ordinary in, say, the U.S., but is somewhat unusual in Poland.
A more important division within the Polish episcopate concerns how to deal with the abuse crisis that has engulfed the Church since 2019. Crudely put, one wing wants a thorough reckoning with clerical pedophilia, whatever the cost to the Church’s reputation. The other wants to offer reassurance to lay people while limiting financial and reputational damage.
Ryś is on the radical reckoning side, which lost in a recent episcopal dispute over the scope of a future national independent commission investigating the Church’s handling of abuse cases. After the bishops’ conference voted in June 2025 to change the commission’s mandate, the cardinal insisted the commission “must be established now,” not in two or three years. He had a private audience with Pope Leo not long after, where he may have driven home the point.
One reason Ryś may be framed as a liberal is that his personality contrasts starkly with that of his predecessor in Kraków, Archbishop Jędraszewski, who is presented in the media as a conservative firebrand. Jędraszewski made headlines for urging Poles to resist LGBT ideology with the same defiance they showed Nazism and communism, criticizing Greta Thunberg, and arguing that multiculturalism undermines Polish identity. Ryś has a less confrontational style.
But that doesn’t mean the cardinal has nothing to say. He is the author of more than 50 books, many directed at spiritual seekers on the margins of Catholic life, including “Does the Church Make Sense?” and “There is Room for Everyone in the Church.”
His books indicate his principal interests: engagement with the secular world, ecumenism, and inter-religious dialogue. Above all, they highlight his drive to evangelize, especially among young people, which was recognized when he was asked to serve in 2011 as the first chairman of the Polish bishops’ new evangelization team. He held the position for two five-year terms.
Although Ryś has sought to avoid being drawn into Poland’s hyper-partisan political arena, he has spoken out when he deemed it necessary. For example, he reprimanded the populist politician Grzegorz Braun for suggesting that Auschwitz’s gas chambers were “a fake.”
Ryś also stands out among the Polish bishops for being especially appreciative of Pope Francis’ legacy.
In a Nov. 26 address reflecting on his appointment to Kraków, Ryś recalled an epiphany while praying at the Argentine pope’s tomb in Rome’s Basilica of St. Mary Major. He said he realized he had “learned everything I believe about the Church from him.”
“I don’t want a Church that is not missionary. I don’t want a Church that is not merciful. I don’t want a Church that is not open, that is not in dialogue. I don’t want another Church,” Ryś said.
What are people saying?
Tomasz Terlikowski, a critic of the Polish Church’s handling of abuse, described Ryś’s appointment to Kraków as a “happy day.”
The journalist predicted that communication between the archdiocesan curia and priests would improve. He also said the move was “a strong signal that Pope Leo XIV does not wish to retreat from the path set by Pope Francis.”
“By sending Cardinal Ryś to Kraków, Leo promotes pastoral and evangelical openness,” Terlikowski commented.
Tomasz Krzyżak, a journalist who has defended St. John Paul II against criticisms that he mishandled abuse cases, said the people of Kraków were undoubtedly pleased by the choice.
“Here comes a man who, unlike Archbishop Jędraszewski [a priest of Poznań archdiocese], knows the diocese inside out,” he said. “He comes from its presbyterate, and a large number of priests underwent seminary training under his supervision when Fr. Ryś was rector of the seminary. Some know him from the time when he was auxiliary bishop at Wawel alongside Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz. This knowledge of the diocese is an undoubted advantage.”
But Krzyżak suggested the appointment would have little impact at the national Church level.
“Cardinal Ryś is indeed a popular figure, but he is rather marginalized within the Polish bishops’ conference,” he wrote. “He belongs to a group of hierarchs who would like to make the Polish bishops’ conference more open to the world, but this group is still small.”