Stanisław Ryłko

Stanisław Marian Ryłko (born 4 July 1945) is a Polish cardinal of the 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 was Archpriest of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore from 2016 to 2025.

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

Early life and pastoral work Stanisław Ryłko was born on 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, 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.

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.

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.

Rylko participated as a cardinal elector in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis and the 2025 papal conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.