Cardinal Jaworski

Cardinal Marian Jaworski, retired archbishop of Lviv of the Latin Rite Catholics of Ukraine, died on September 5 at the age of 94. He was a close friend of Pope St. John Paul II, and administered the last sacraments to the Polish Pope on his deathbed in 2005. Jaworski was born in 1926 and entered the major seminary of Lviv in 1945. Following the occupation of the territory by Soviet troops, he was sent to Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Poland. Ordained a priest in 1950, he continued his studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland) and then at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Catholic University of Lublin (Poland). It was during this period that he met the future Polish pope. At his death, various commentators recalled how John Paul II thought his life and the life of Cardinal Jaworksi were intertwined not just in their friendship and physical proximity, but in a mystical way. Cardinal Jaworski lost his hand because of a train accident. But he was on the train because of the future John Paul II. It was June of 1967 and Karol Wojtyla (the future John Paul II) had been called to Rome to be made a cardinal. Wojtyla already had had something on his schedule for the date of the consistory — a trip to Olsztyn, Poland — and he asked Jaworski to take his place. It was during this trip that an unfortunate accident occurred, which led to the amputation of Jaworski’s hand.

He later taught at the Catholic Academy of Theology in Warsaw, and then became full professor at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Krakow in 1976. He was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Lubaczów (Poland) in 1984 by John Paul II, who appointed him Archbishop of the Latin Archdiocese of Lviv in 1991. Upon his return to his native country, he worked patiently to rebuild the diocese, which had been destroyed by the Communist regime. The Ukrainian high prelate was himself made a cardinal by the Polish pope in 1998, though his elevation wasn’t made public until 2001. He participated in the conclave of 2005 that elected Benedict XVI. He resigned his office in 2008 at the age of 82.