Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź, Poland, was born on 9 February 1964 in Krakow.  From 1982 to 1988 he studied at the Faculty of Theology and the Faculty of Church History of the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow and in the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Krakow.

He was ordained a priest in Wawel Cathedral on 22 May 1988.  In 1994, he received his doctorate in theology for his dissertation Medieval Popular Piety in Poland, and in 2000 he was awarded a post-doctorate in history for his dissertation Jan Hus in the Face of the Crisis of the Reformed Church.

From 1988 to 1989 he worked in the parish of Saints Margaret and Catherine in Kęty. From 2004 to 2007 he was the director of the Metropolitan Chapter Archives in Krakow at the Institute of History of the Faculty of History and Cultural Heritage of the Pontifical John Paul II University (formerly the Pontifical Academy of Theology). From 2007 to 2011, he was the Rector of the major seminary of the Archdiocese of Krakow, and from 2010 to 2011 he was the President of the Conference of Rectors of Theological Seminaries in Poland.

On 16 July 2011 he was appointed Titular Bishop of Arcavica and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Krakow by Pope Benedict XVI.  He was ordained a bishop on 28 September 2011 in Wawel Cathedral, choosing “Virtus in infirmitate” (power in weakness) as his motto.

On 14 September 2017, Pope Francis appointed him as Archbishop of Łódź. He was installed as archbishop in the Archcathedral Basilica of Saint Stanislaus Kostka on 4 November 2017. On 29 June 2018, he received the pallium in a ceremony in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and it was conferred to him on 5 October 2018 in the Cathedral of Łódź by the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland.

In 2018, he convened the fourth Synod in the history of the Archdiocese of Łódź on the topic of introducing the permanent diaconate to address the shortage of priests.  In 2019, he introduced the permanent diaconate in the archdiocese and also established the Archdiocesan International Missionary Seminary Redemptoris Mater of the Neocatechumenal Way.

On 25 June 2020, he was appointed by Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator sede plena of the Diocese of Kalisz.  On 21 November 2020, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Dicastery for Bishops.

He was created and proclaimed Cardinal by Pope Francis in the Consistory of 30 September 2023, and was assigned the titular church Santi Cirillo e Metodio.

Member of:

• Dicasteries: for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; for Bishops.