Stanisław Ryłko

Stanisław Marian Ryłko (born 4 July 1945) is a Polish Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He held positions in the Roman Curia beginning in 1987 and was president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 2003 to 2016. He was made a cardinal in 2007. He has been Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore since 28 December 2016.

Besides his native Polish, he speaks Italian, English, and German.

Early life and pastoral work
Stanisław Ryłko was born in 4 July 1945 in Andrychów to Władysław and Aurelia Ryłko. He has two siblings: a brother, Władysław (d. 2007), and a sister, Jadwiga Krasoń. He graduated from the Lyceum of Maria Skłodowska-Curie in Andrychów in 1963. He entered the seminary in Kraków in 1963 and earned his licentiate in moral theology Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Krakow in 1971. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) on 30 March 1969 in Wawel Cathedral, and then did pastoral work in Poronin until 1971.

Beginning in 1972 Ryłko studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, where he earned his doctorate in social sciences in 1978. He was then vice-rector of the Kraków seminary and taught practical theology at the Pontifical Theological Academy of Kraków from 1978 to 1987. From 1979 on he was secretary of the lay apostolate commission of the Polish Episcopal Conference as well. In 1987, he returned to Rome and headed the youth section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity for five years, which included organizing World Youth Day events of 1989 and 1991. He was transferred to the Polish section of the Vatican Secretariat of State in 1992.

Bishop
On 20 December 1995, Pope John Paul II appointed Ryłko secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and Titular Bishop of Novica. He received his episcopal consecration on 6 January 1996 from John Paul II, with Archbishops Giovanni Re and Jorge Mejía serving as co-consecrators. As secretary, Ryłko served as the second-highest official of that council under Eduardo Francisco Pironio and James Stafford.

On 11 January 1996 he was named a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and on 22 February a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

He was named president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity on 4 October 2003. Following the death of John Paul II on 2 April 2005, Pope Benedict XVI confirmed Ryłko in that position on 21 April 2005.

Cardinal
In the consistory of 24 November 2007, Pope Benedict made him Cardinal-Deacon of Sacro Cuore di Cristo Re.

On 12 June 2008 Benedict appointed him a member of several departments in the Roman Curia: the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Congregation for Bishops, and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In November 2008, in an address to the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Laity, Ryłko said that the time has come for Christians to free themselves from their false inferiority complex against the so-called secular world, to be courageous disciples of Christ.

On 5 January 2011 he was named one of the first members of the new Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. On 10 March 2015, Pope Francis appointed Rylko a Member of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses.

He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.

His tenure as head of the Pontifical Council on the Laity ended on 1 September 2016 when its functions were taken over by the new Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life.

On 28 December 2016, Pope Francis appointed Rylko Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. On 11 August 2018, he was named a member of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State.