Archbishop Wojda elected head of Polish Bishops' Conference

By Paweł Rozwód – Warsaw

The Metropolitan of Gdansk was elected to the office of president of the Polish Bishops' Conference on Thursday during the group's plenary assembly of the Polish Bishops’ Conference. 

“This is an enormous challenge. I did not expect that despite my short experience as a bishop—seven years—I would be elected. This is a credit of trust. I will try not to let it down in cooperation with the entire Polish Bishops' Conference, which leads the Church in Poland,” he said in his first statement to the media.

Archbishop Wojda listed forming a synodal Church, a task delegated by Pope Francis, among his priorities. “This long process requires cooperation with the laity, who must be further dynamised and included. We also face social challenges related to the family, youth, catechetical teaching, or Church–state relations,” he added.

Asked about the contribution the Church in Poland can make to the Church in Europe and the world, he pointed out that the Church is one, Catholic and universal. “On the other hand, the expression of the particular Church is the local Church, which gathers the wealth resulting from culture, tradition, and history. Each local Church brings this wealth to the universal Church,” the new President of the Polish Episcopate noted.

Archbishop Tadeusz Wojda, SAC, was born on January 29, 1957, to a large family as the fourth child of Władysław and Aniela (née Pietrzyk). His younger brother is also a priest in the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines), while his older sister is in the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Elizabeth. 

In 1976, he joined the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (SAC) and was ordained to the presbyterate in 1983. In 1989, he completed his doctorate in missiology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. From 1990 to 2017, he worked at the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and was appointed undersecretary to this Congregation by the Pope in 2012. 

In addition, he was a chaplain of the Italian Red Cross Physical Education Center for the Disabled since 1991 and a chaplain of the Borromean Sisters' community in Rome since 1996.

On April 12, 2017, the Holy Father Francis appointed him Archbishop Metropolitan of Bialystok. In 2021, Archbishop Wojda was appointed Metropolitan of Gdansk by Pope Francis. The motto of Archbishop Wojda's episcopal ministry is the words from the Gospel according to St. Mark (13:10): “Oportet praedicari Evangelium” (That the Gospel may be preached).