Vatican: Regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary ordained Bishop

By Fr. Paweł Rytel-Andrianik, Artur Hanula 

A vocation is a call always to have the Lord's gaze - attentive to every brother and sister. "It is a look that you were able to learn well during your years of service in the Apostolic Penitentiary and that you will now be able to support it with the grace of state proper to the sacrament of ordination granted to you in full today," Cardinal Mauro Piacenza said in his homily, addressing Fr. Christopher Nykiel, who was ordained a Bishop in St. Peter's Basilica on June 22.

The motto of Bishop Nykel is "Patris Corde" ("With a Fatherly Heart"). It refers to Pope Francis' Apostolic Letter for the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as the patron saint of the Universal Church.

"For you, I am a Bishop; with you, I am a Christian"

Cardinal Piacenza pointed out that episcopal consecration is "implanted in the ordination to the priesthood and diaconate but above all in the gratuitous gift of Holy Baptism."

He recalled the words of St. Augustine to the Christians of Hippona on the anniversary of his episcopal ordination: "For you, I am a Bishop, and with you a Christian. The first is the name of an office undertaken, the second a name of grace; that one means danger, this one salvation."

He pointed out that "a vocation is always about allowing oneself to be possessed by the love of Christ, no longer living for themselves but for him who for our sake died and was raised (2 Corinthians 5:15); it is a call to no longer 'regard no one according to the flesh' (2 Corinthians 5:16), but to always have eyes of the Lord - a look attentive to each brother and sister, aiming at their good, which is not only temporal good but eternal good, always full of mercy and forgiveness."

Pope Francis often points out the need for such a look at others.

Words of gratitude from the new Bishop

Bishops, priests, and laity attended the ordination ceremony in large numbers. At the end of the Eucharist, Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel addressed the Lord God first, thanking Him for everything "that His Mercy has done and continues to do for me, especially today when through the consecration prayer of the Church and the imposition of hands, He wished to give me the fullness of the ministerial priesthood."

With humility, Bishop Nykiel expressed his profound gratitude to the Pope Francis for "the trust he has placed in me and for deeming me worthy to enter the apostolic college."

Bishop with experience of ministry in the Holy See

Msgr. Krzysztof Józef Nykiel was born on February 28, 1965, in Osjaków in Poland.

Ordained to the priesthood on June 9, 1990, in the Archdiocese of Lodz, he received a master's degree in theology from the Theological Academy in Warsaw (1990) and a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (2001).

He worked at the then Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers and the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He was also deputy Secretary of the International Commission of Inquiry on Medjugorje. Benedict XVI appointed him regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary in June 2012, and he was appointed Titular Bishop of Velia by Pope Francis in May 2024.