Pope’s Robin Hood wraps almoner’s mission and returns to Polish hometown as archbishop #Catholic –

(OSV News) — After 13 years of daring acts of charity that made him break the law in the name of the Gospel and elevate Rome’s homeless to the heart of the Church, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s “Robin Hood” leaves Rome after nearly three decades to become archbishop of Lódz, Poland.

Five months into Pope Francis’ papacy, on Aug. 3, 2013, then-Msgr. Konrad Krajewski was picked by the pontiff to be the charity point-man of the Vatican.

“He told me that I would not have a desk, that I should not stay in the Vatican City, that I should not deal with formal offices … that I should not have my own car, and that I should not have a secretary,” he told OSV News March 12.

“He told me to give up everything,” Cardinal Krajewski said. “And later I realized that I actually received the most when I simply had nothing.”

“It turned my life upside down,” the Polish prelate said. He spoke to OSV News the day the Vatican announced he would leave the post of prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity and return to his hometown.

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Longtime archbishop of Lódz, Cardinal Grzegorz Rys, was been appointed archbishop of Kraków Nov. 26, 2025. Since then, the search for the new archbishop of Lódz continued.

“The Holy Father asked me … whether, after so many years, I could see myself there and whether I would want it. It was not that the Holy Father told me that I must go … he simply asked whether I could see myself there. Whether I would be available,” Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News.

“I said, of course, with joy: yes. But it wasn’t only about joy,” he said.

“From the very beginning of my priesthood, I believed that I had promised obedience to the bishop. And it is precisely in moments like these that this promise is fulfilled: One does not think about oneself, but about what one’s superiors propose.”

He told OSV News he is returning home after 28 years spent in Rome, where he arrived first to serve St. John Paul II, then Pope Benedict XVI as master of papal ceremonies and over 12 years as papal almoner for Pope Francis.

“I never really left Lódz. I left Lódz in order to be here, in Rome, with the universal Church, with the pope. But I never left Lódz in my heart; I always remained connected to it.”

He admitted, however, that in Rome he leaves behind a Vatican family.

“Apart from the homeless who were entrusted to me by Pope Francis and whom I served in his name” — and who sent him many of the 800 “heartfelt” farewell messages he received on March 12 — he said he feels “a very deep bond with the workers of Rome.”

“Not so much with the hierarchy as with the ordinary people — carpenters, those who set up the chairs in St. Peter’s Square, plumbers,” he told OSV News.

“In order to create all those shelters and showers for the poor, I worked together with them — my Roman family. They never needed any documents or paperwork. Whenever I called, they were there.”

They were there when in November 2014, showers for the homeless would be built under the sweeping white colonnade of St. Peter’s Square.

Over the years, an outpatient clinic for the poor was built in that same spot, in the touristy center of the Vatican.

In 2019, the plumbers and carpenters of the Vatican were there for him when Cardinal Krajewski hit another milestone of Pope Francis’ revolution of tenderness: The pope had an empty Roman palace to allocate.

After extensive renovation carried out under the supervision of Cardinal Krajewski, and which left historical frescoes on the walls, Palazzo Migliori was opened in November 2019 in time for the third World Day of the Poor.

Recalling his Roman “family,” Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News: “They also drove around Rome with me whenever some intervention was needed — things that were not always fully possible according to the law, such as turning on water or electricity in abandoned houses. All of them helped me, putting themselves at risk.”

In a move that gained him the nickname of the pope’s Robin Hood, Cardinal Krajewski on May 12, 2019, climbed into a manhole in Rome to restore electricity to an abandoned building occupied by about 450 people, including many migrants, and around 100 children.

The power had been cut because of more than $300,000 in unpaid bills. To reconnect electricity, he broke a police seal — technically committing a crime — but was never charged despite criticism from then-Italy’s interior minister.

When questioned about the legality of his actions, Cardinal Krajewski replied, “The Gospel is my law.” A year later, several migrants living in the building — most of them Muslim — sent him a video thanking him for what he had done.

“In a moment like that you don’t think about the consequences, but only about the fact that the help is necessary,” he said.

“I was able to do many things because I had the trust of Pope Francis. He told me to think according to the Gospel, and that challenged me. It was something that kept me awake at night,” he said.

“He only said: ‘You must have a lot of imagination — evangelical imagination. So think about what Jesus would do.’ When someone leaves you that kind of freedom, but at the same time shows you a clear goal, then all your strength becomes, so to speak, focused and united,” Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News.

“I experienced the most beautiful years of my life here as a person,” he said of his three decades in Rome. “But I think I did not waste those years. They were truly for the Church — through people.”

He said he learned the most from the poor of Rome during his mission as an almoner.

“Their needs had to be discovered, so that we would not help someone the way we wanted to help, but in the way they actually needed. It is very easy to force help on someone — for example, to give someone a ham sandwich when he doesn’t even like ham. Instead, you ask the person what he or she really needs.”

“That is true charity,” Cardinal Krajewski told OSV News. “It means sharing yourself and thinking about what each person needs in order to restore their dignity.”

With Cardinal Krajewski in charge, the poor were regularly welcomed inside Casa Santa Marta, where the pope lived, and the Swiss Guards were saluting them as they made their way to the Elemosineria Apostolica — the Apostolic Almsgiving office — for lunch with Cardinal Krajewski in his apartment every Tuesday. Pope Francis made it perfectly clear — they’re one of us, and they deserve the Vatican to be their home, the cardinal pointed out.

“The task of the Apostolic Almsgiving is to empty the account for the charity of the Holy Father for the poor, according to the logic of the Gospel,” reads the main banner on the website for the office — entrusted now to Spanish Augustinian Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, new prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity.

A Vatican almsgiving task that elevated Cardinal Krajewski to one of the major — and most colorful — figures in the universal Church, taught him “to wait.”

Earlier on, “I wanted everything immediately, all at once,” having a “choleric temperament.” But with the poor, “it doesn’t work,” he told OSV News.

“They taught me. They calmed me down a bit. They showed me that everyone has their own path, and that making calculations or statistics doesn’t really make sense,” the cardinal told OSV News.

“If someone asked me how many poor people there are in Rome, I would say: I don’t know. Because every person is different. Restoring the dignity of even one person was the most important thing. Numbers or systems never mattered.”

“You have to wait for them,” he said of ministering to the poor. “The door must always remain open. They must always have your phone number. And you shouldn’t be surprised if someone calls at two in the morning saying that the next day he wants to go back home after 10 years. So they taught me this kind of inner calm — for their sake.”

Cardinal Krajewski traveled to Ukraine 10 times under Pope Francis’ pontificate to distribute help, but above all — to “embrace” the Ukrainians, in his own words, and bring them comfort from the Holy Father.

The Ukraine mission that included escaping gunfire in September 2022, came full circle for Cardinal Krajewski as he sent a truckload valued at over 1 million euros ($1.15 million) to the war-torn country on behalf of Pope Leo in February.

“In the bull I received from the pope when I became a bishop, it was written that I should teach by example, and only if that was not enough, then by word. And I think that is how it was. It really was,” he told OSV News.

He said he already met with the new papal almoner, telling Archbishop Marín, “You must become an alms yourself.”

“It is the life of solitude, because during the day the almoner has to function in the office — dealing with documents, papal blessings, financial assistance. But in the afternoon, when everyone goes home, that’s when you take the car and drive around to the places where the shelters are, where the parishes are, where there are soup kitchens or places that offer showers,” the cardinal said.

“You stay with them, you strengthen them, you support them financially — but above all, the pope taught me that presence matters. Presence is what counts.”

One of the poor present in a packed lunch March 10 in the almoner’s apartment, asked the cardinal, “Why do you do all this?”

He replied: “Because I represent Jesus.”

“Only then the works of mercy will last. They’re not linked to a person. They’re linked to the Gospel. Only this way they will last.”

Paulina Guzik is international editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @Guzik_Paulina.

– (OSV News) — After 13 years of daring acts of charity that made him break the law in the name of the Gospel and elevate Rome’s homeless to the heart of the Church, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the pope’s “Robin Hood” leaves Rome after nearly three decades to become archbishop of Lódz, Poland. Five months into Pope Francis’ papacy, on Aug. 3, 2013, then-Msgr. Konrad Krajewski was picked by the pontiff to be the charity point-man of the Vatican. “He told me that I would not have a desk, that I should not stay in the Vatican City, that I should

Pope’s visit to show that Christianity is asset, not danger, for Algeria, bishop says #Catholic –

(OSV News) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit Algeria as the first stop of his apostolic trip to Africa April 13–23, Bishop Michel Guillaud of Constantine-Hippone told OSV News the Holy Father’s presence will demonstrate that Christianity “is an asset and not a danger” to Algeria.

The birthplace of St. Augustine is the first stop of his trip and “overjoyed” with the fact the pontiff is coming, with the Vatican releasing a detailed itinerary of the first African journey of the pontiff March 16.

“The Holy Father has already visited Algeria twice, in 2003 and 2014, when he was prior general of the Order of St. Augustine,” Bishop Guillard told OSV News. “He is not coming primarily on a personal pilgrimage in the footsteps of St. Augustine, but to meet the Algerian people and to support his Church, drawing on the strong bond between them through the figure of Augustine.”

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Algeria is 99% Sunni Muslim, and the Catholic Church counts just 8,740 members, about 0.019% of the population, out of more than 45 million people, according to the 2025 edition of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican’s annual yearbook.

In a conversation with OSV News, the Algerian Church leader discussed the deep connection to St. Augustine that unites the pope with the nation, the daily realities faced by Christians who are “one in a thousand,” and their hopes for a future in a place where Christianity “does not exist primarily through the presence of a priest, but through the presence of Christians.”

Bishop Guillaud, originally from Lyon, France, became a parish priest in Algeria in 2006. He was named administrator of the Diocese of Constantine-Hippone in 2024 and appointed bishop in July 2025.

Reflecting on the May 8, 2025, election of Pope Leo to the Chair of Peter, he said: “When Pope Leo was elected, one of his first statements was: ‘I am the son of Saint Augustine.’ All of Algeria trembled … since then, they have been waiting for him,” the bishop said.

“Algerians know that popes are not only concerned with their flock, but also with peace, justice and reconciliation for all. If the Holy Father is coming to Algeria, it is because he believes that everyone has a part to play in building the Kingdom of God, including the Muslim Algerian people. The hope of the Church in Algeria is that the Algerian people will grow in the conviction that Christians are not a threat, but that their presence and what inspires them can be good news for everyone,” the bishop emphasized.

On April 14, the pope will travel 310 miles from Algiers to celebrate Mass in the Basilica of Hippo, in the city now called Annaba. St. Augustine was the bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430, the year of his death. Annaba is a familiar place for local Muslims who travel Annaba every year to visit — be it families, tourists, school groups and university students — to discover the place and the man whose memory it preserves.

“Every year, we organize ‘Augustinian Days’ in Hippo, attended by both Muslims and Christians,” Bishop Guillaud told OSV News. “The three speakers this year were Algerian and expressed how much the bishop of Hippo was a source of inspiration for them. Augustine was, in his life as in his thinking, a seeker of truth, a builder of unity, a person who scrutinized the world with intelligence and faith. He propels us forward by telling us to love in everything we do, to sing the ‘alleluia of the road’ even when we are going through trials, and to walk with perseverance and confidence.”

Asked about the daily realities faced by Christians, and their hopes for a future, the bishop first highlighted the number of Christians a Muslim-majority country: “(of) 47 million inhabitants, Catholics are perhaps one in a thousand,” he said. “Every day we are questioned about not being Muslim. It takes a great deal of effort to join a Christian community in a country of 2.5 million square kilometers (919,595 square miles), and some have to travel several hours by road to do so.”

A diversity of languages spoken — and those include English, Portuguese, Arabic, French, Berber — provides challenges for Christian gathering in the North African country.

“Sunday is a working day, so we have to meet on the weekend, on Friday or Saturday. We do not have a priest in every parish, and Christians must learn that a community does not begin with the presence of a priest, but with Christians. Our communities are not very large. They rarely exceed fifty people, more often gathering 15 to 30, which gives them a character that is both more austere and more familiar.”

The bishop underlined that the main task of Catholic priests in Algeria is “to support Christians and maintain fraternal ties with Muslims.”

“We sometimes welcome people who come knocking on our door because they feel called to follow Christ. For Christians of European origin, it is considered ‘normal’ for them to be Christians,” but for people from sub-Saharan Africa, “it is more surprising.”

“When Christians are of Algerian origin, it comes as a shock. The authorities tolerate it, respecting the conscience of the country’s citizens, but society struggles to accept it. These new Christians often have to remain very discreet in their family, social and professional environments. And evangelical communities composed solely of Algerians struggle to be recognized. Our presence in society, when it manifests itself in cultural or charitable institutions, must remain modest, proportionate to our numbers,” Bishop Guillaud said.

The pope’s visit, he highlighted, is “To show that difference is not a danger, that unity can coexist with differences, whereas too much emphasis on unanimity stifles freedom. If society becomes more accepting of difference, this will benefit everyone.”

“The Catholic Church is the custodian of a treasure in the Eucharist and the apostolic ministry,” Bishop Guillaud stressed. “But the latter has been exercised for too long in a way that gives it excessive importance. When there are fewer priests, the challenge for the community is to realize that it does not exist primarily through the presence of a priest, but through the presence of Christians, and to rethink itself accordingly. The future depends in part on the emergence of a new way of being Church. It also depends on the place that society will accept to give it. Everything is still possible.”

The bishop stressed that Algerian Christians await the pope “with both great joy and a certain expectation: when St. Peter travels in the Acts of the Apostles, it is anything but ordinary. With his successor, we try to open our hearts to the grace proper to this visit.”

Ngala Killian Chimtom writes for OSV News from Yaounde, Cameroon.

– (OSV News) — As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit Algeria as the first stop of his apostolic trip to Africa April 13–23, Bishop Michel Guillaud of Constantine-Hippone told OSV News the Holy Father’s presence will demonstrate that Christianity “is an asset and not a danger” to Algeria. The birthplace of St. Augustine is the first stop of his trip and “overjoyed” with the fact the pontiff is coming, with the Vatican releasing a detailed itinerary of the first African journey of the pontiff March 16. “The Holy Father has already visited Algeria twice, in 2003 and 2014, when he

Parsippany pastor to explore ‘When is Enough, Enough?’ on radio show #Catholic –

Father David Pickens, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany, N.J., will discuss the renewed interest in faith-based films, the meaning of Holy Week, and hopeful signs of people returning to church during the March 25 episode of “Let Go and Let God.” This weekly radio show addresses listeners who are struggling with their Catholic faith, have doubts, or wish to strengthen their beliefs.

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In a busy, distracted world, this episode, “When is Enough, Enough?”, invites listeners to pause and remember what truly matters. Listeners will be reminded that God has already blessed them abundantly, and that true peace comes not from having more, but from gratitude and trust in him.

Art Suriano of Newton, N.J., the show’s creator, host, and producer, interviews a wide variety of guests, who cover different topical issues. He includes performances of his original Christian contemporary songs to further illuminate the episode’s theme.

Stream the episode on or after Wednesday, March 25, here or on all podcast platforms. The show will be broadcast locally on Sunday, March 29, on WRSK in Sussex at 7 a.m., and on WOLD in Edison at 8 a.m.

– Father David Pickens, pastor of St. Peter the Apostle Parish in Parsippany, N.J., will discuss the renewed interest in faith-based films, the meaning of Holy Week, and hopeful signs of people returning to church during the March 25 episode of “Let Go and Let God.” This weekly radio show addresses listeners who are struggling with their Catholic faith, have doubts, or wish to strengthen their beliefs. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. In a busy, distracted world, this episode, “When is Enough, Enough?”, invites listeners to pause and remember what truly matters. Listeners will be reminded that God

Chatham school salutes their patron, St. Patrick, at Mass #Catholic –

St. Patrick School and Parish in Chatham, N.J., honored their patron, St. Patrick, during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on March 15, ahead of the Feast of St. Patrick on March 17. Father Peter Glabik, St. Patrick’s pastor, and Father Christopher Han, parochial vicar of the parish, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Sweeney.

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– St. Patrick School and Parish in Chatham, N.J., honored their patron, St. Patrick, during a Mass with Bishop Kevin J. Sweeney on March 15, ahead of the Feast of St. Patrick on March 17. Father Peter Glabik, St. Patrick’s pastor, and Father Christopher Han, parochial vicar of the parish, concelebrated the Mass with Bishop Sweeney. Click here to subscribe to our weekly newsletter. BEACON PHOTOS | JOE GIGLI