Marek Jędraszewski

Marek Jędraszewski (born 24 July 1949) is a Polish Roman Catholic prelate who has been Archbishop of Kraków since 8 December 2016. He served as the Archbishop of Łódź from 2012 to 2017. He has also been Vice-President of the Polish Episcopal Conference since 2014.

He is known for being an orthodox defender of the faith and especially of marriage, but one who is charismatic and manages to interact with the faithful as an evangelist. He is also known for being open to ecumenical efforts and dialogue. His selection for the Kraków archdiocese was perceived as a surprise in some quarters.

Marek Jędraszewski was born in Poznań.

Jędraszewski earned his high school diploma in 1967 and then pursued ecclesial studies until 1973 in Poznań. He received his ordination to the priesthood from Bishop Antoni Baraniak in mid-1973. He then studied philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned a doctorate in 1975. In 1974 he earned a bachelor's degree in theological studies in Poznań, and from 1973 to 1975 served as a parochial vicar at Saint Martin's parish in Odalnów. He received his bachelor's degree philosophy 1977. On 20 December 1979, he defended his doctoral dissertation and Pope John Paul II awarded it a gold medal.

From 1980 until 1996, he served in Poznań as an assistant professor and as the prefect of seminarians from 1980 until 1987. From 1987 until 1996, he served as the editor (chief editor since 1990) of the Catholic Guide paper, and in 1996 he did his habilitation degree in Kraków on Jean-Paul Sartre and Emmanuel Levinas. In 1996, he was made an associate professor in Poznań and was also made a visiting professor to the Pontifical Lateran.

John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Poznań on 17 May 1997, and he received his episcopal consecration on 29 June 1997 from Juliusz Paetz. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Archbishop of Lodz on 11 July 2012 and he was enthroned there on 8 September. Pope Francis appointed him Archbishop of Kraków to succeed Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, and he was installed there on 28 January 2017.

He attended the ad limina visit of bishops with Pope Francis on 1 February 2014. Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Catholic Education on 30 November 2013.

In 2013, he launched an initiative called "Dialogues in the Cathedral" that became extremely popular. People could send the archbishop an email asking about an aspect of the faith, and he would answer once a month at open meetings in the cathedral.

Jędraszewski is viewed as a conservative.

IVF treatments

When Poland's government began to subsidize in vitro treatments, he said that IVF was an assault on the dignities of all people and suggested that infertile couples should resort to adoption rather than something that would go above the creative power.

Abortion

Jędraszewski opposes abortion in all circumstances and advocates "the legal protection of human life from conception to natural death".

Transgender and LGBT rights

The archbishop is a strong opponent of transgender rights, referring to it as the "direct path to the self-destruction of our civilization". He was speaking at an adolescent catechesis in Pabianice about the importance of accepting one's own gender when he called upon people to oppose "misanthropic egalitarianism", which he lamented has "become fashionable in recent years". Jędraszewski called "gender ideology" an "extremely dangerous ideology that leads directly to the death of our civilization". During a sermon on August 1, 2019, Jedraszewski called "LGBT ideology" a "rainbow plague" and compared it to the "red plague" of Communism.

Halloween

In 2013, the archbishop urged the faithful not to take part in the celebrations of Halloween "even in playful form". He dubbed it an "anti-Christian festival", and urged both parents and teachers to protect children "against its images of terror and dread" that were the opposite of the Christian message. He issued a pastoral letter dedicated to this, and said that introducing people to Halloween "is a violation of Church teaching", while urging them to observe All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Jędraszewski was a close friend of Pope John Paul II. The two men became friends in 1975 when Jędraszewski was residing at the Polish College in Rome as he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian college. The then-Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła resided at the Polish College when in Rome and demonstrated a keen interest in the students and their studies. But Wojtyla was also fond of philosophy, and found Jędraszewski's studies interesting. The two often discussed various topics and kept personal correspondence with each other when Wojtyla became pope in 1978, and this increased when Jędraszewski became a bishop.