All the prognosticators are starting to wonder who will succeed Francis.
Let me toss out a suggestion whose name never gets mentioned. I think he merits attention, in part because he is undertaking an ongoing ministry that is fundamentally diaconal. He embodies so much of the spirit of Pope Francis — and he’s displayed uncommon courage while going about his work.
I’m speaking of the papal almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski.
From Wikipedia:
On the Pope’s behalf, the almoner carries out acts of charity and raises the money to fund them. Krajewski’s office funds its work by selling customized parchments with a photograph of the pope and an inscription in calligraphy that document papal blessings granted on a special occasion, such as a wedding, baptism or priestly ordination. All proceeds go directly to the works of charity. In 2012, the office spent one million Euro (US$1.4 million) on 6,500 requests for help.
Krajewski described how Francis has redefined the little-known office of papal almoner: “The Holy Father told me at the beginning: ‘You can sell your desk. You don’t need it. You need to get out of the Vatican. Don’t wait for people to come ringing. You need to go out and look for the poor,'” Krajewski said. Requests for aid that the pope receives are delivered to the almoner daily, sometimes accompanied with notations in the pope’s hand. Archbishop Krajewski has visited homes for the elderly and distributed funds to the needy. He spent four days on the island of Lampedusa after a migrant boat carrying Eritreans capsized, praying with police divers as they worked to raise the dead from the sea floor. In June 2015 Archbishop Krajewski announced plans for a thirty-bed, volunteer-run dormitory for the homeless near the Vatican. Krajewski said the entire initiative was aimed at “giving people their dignity.: It opened in October 2015.
Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 28 June 2018.
On 11 May 2019 Krajewski climbed down a manhole cover in a Rome street to break a seal and switch back on the electricity supply to a building where 450 people were squatting, including 100 children, thereby restoring power and hot water which they had been without for five days. The squatters included migrants. Krajewski was criticised on Twitter by Matteo Salvini, the Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, for his action but responded by telling the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera: “From now on…. I’ll pay the bills; indeed I will even pay his [Salvini’s]”.
Krajewski received significant attention in early May 2020 when he wired charity money for food to a group of transgender sex workers who had been left out of a job due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Krajewski expressed surprise at the attention given to this action, as he defined it within the normal charitable works of the Catholic Church.
In March 2022, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Pope Francis sent Krajewski as a special envoy to Ukraine, along with Cardinal Michael Czerny, who is head of the papal office that deals with migration, charity, justice and peace. This mission, which involved several trips, was considered a highly unusual move of Vatican diplomacy.
As part of his mission to Ukraine, he became a target:
Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, whom Pope Francis sent to Ukraine at the beginning of September to show his “closeness” to the Ukrainian people and to bring humanitarian aid, came under fire near the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia today along with others who were with him. “He emerged unscathed and is continuing his mission,” Vatican News reported. Cardinal Krajewski told the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, that he had gone into war zones to bring aid to people in need, “zones where only soldiers entered. Then the shooting started.”
He’s not as well-known or as high-profile as some of the other names being floated as “papabile” — but then again, in the last conclave, neither was Jorge Bergoglio.
See more about him below.
