Kazimierz Świątek

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cardinal Kazimierz Świątek giving the Sacramental Blessing (2009)

Kazimierz Cardinal Świątek [ kaˈʓimʲɛʂ ˈɕfʲɔntɛk ] (born October 21, 1914 in Walk , Livonia ; † July 21, 2011 in Pinsk ) was Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk-Mahiljou in Belarus .

Life

Kazimierz Świątek was born in Walk , in the Imperial Russian Governorate of Livonia , and grew up in Riga . His father, the leader of a patriotic Polish family fought for the Polish Legions of Józef Pilsudski and fell in Vilnius in combat. His mother and younger brother were deported to Siberia and were able to return to Poland in 1922. Kazimierz Świątek came in 1932 in the Catholic seminary in Pinsk (then Poland) and received on 8 April 1939 by the then Bishop of Pinsk , Kazimierz Bukraba , the ordination . During the time of the suppression of the Catholic Church in the Soviet era , Świątek spent several decades in labor camps and prisons . The outbreak of World War II in 1941 prevented the execution of his death penalty; he spent two months on death row in Brest . In 1944 the young priest was arrested again and sentenced to ten years in a camp, which he spent in Siberia and beyond the Arctic Circle in Vorkuta . After his release he was only able to celebrate the Primiz in Pinsk on July 16, 1954 . In the following years he worked to restore the Pinsk Cathedral.

After the fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) and the official re-admission of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II appointed Świątek on April 13, 1991 as Archbishop of Minsk-Mahiljou and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Pinsk. On May 21, 1991, the then 76-year-old received the episcopal ordination by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz , the Apostolic Administrator for the Catholics of the Latin Rite in the European part of Russia; Co- consecrators were Władysław Jędruszuk , Bishop of Drohiczyn in Poland, and Edward Kisiel , Bishop of Białystok in Poland.

Shortly after his 80th birthday, on November 26, 1994, Świątek was accepted into the College of Cardinals by Pope John Paul II as a cardinal priest with the titular church of San Gerardo Maiella .

Cardinal Świątek still exercised his position as shepherd of the approximately 200,000 Catholics in his archdiocese beyond the age of 90, but was now supported by an auxiliary bishop .

Cardinal Świątek was the first President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Belarus.

His resignation at the age of 92 on June 13, 2006 from his office as diocesan bishop was received by Pope Benedict XVI. granted. Kazimierz Cardinal Świątek died on July 21, 2011 at the age of 96 in a hospital in Pinsk, Belarus. At his request, he was buried in the Cathedral of the Assumption in Pinsk.

Honors

Web links

Commons : Kazimierz Świątek  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b "Ksiądz kardynał Kazimierz Świątek (ur. 1914)" , accessed on July 21, 2011
  2. ↑ "His Eminence Cardinal Kazimierz Świątek" ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Conference of the Catholic Bishops in Belarus, accessed July 21, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / catholic.by
  3. ↑ Press release on the death of the cardinal on kathweb.at
  4. ^ Karl Golser: Meeting in Belarus with a "witness of faith" , accessed on July 21, 2011
predecessor Office successor
Boļeslavs Sloskāns Archbishop of Minsk-Mahiljou
1991-2006 		Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz
personal data
SURNAME Świątek, Kazimierz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Świątek, Cardinal Kazimierz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belarusian clergyman, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Minsk, cardinal
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Walk , Livonia
DATE OF DEATH July 21, 2011
Place of death Pinsk