Early years Born the son of Wincenty and Stanisława Łastowiecka in
Lwów,
Poland (
now Lviv, Ukraine), his family was expelled from Ukraine in 1945 when the Soviets directed a "
repatriation drive" for Poles living within the former borders of Poland in the entire
Kresy region. Jaworski began his studies in Poland at the Lwów Major Seminary and was ordained in
Kraków on 25 June 1950. He served as a priest for two years (1950–1952) at a parish near the Ukrainian border before returning to the
Jagiellonian University to complete a Doctorate in Philosophy. He had three doctorates by 1965 – one in
theology from the
Jagiellonian University, and
Ph.D.s from the
Lublin Catholic University and
Warsaw Theological Academy.
Later career Jaworski was a professor for several years at the
Warsaw Theological Academy and later at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Kraków. He also lectured in
metaphysics and the
philosophy of religion at the seminaries of various religious orders. From 1981 to 1987 he was the first rector of the Pontifical Theological Academy of Kraków. He lived near
Karol Wojtyla at that time. When Wojtyla was appointed archbishop of the
Krakow Archdiocese in 1964, Jaworski was given an apartment in the archbishop's residence. In 1970, he was made secretary of the Polish Bishops' Scientific Council, a role he held until 1984. Jaworski was Dean of the Pontifical Theological Faculty in Kraków from 1976 to 1981.
Episcopacy On 21 May 1984, Pope John Paul II appointed Jaworski the titular bishop of Lambaesis and apostolic administrator of Lubaczów, receiving episcopal ordination on 23 June 1984. At the time, Pope John Paul II was not able to appoint a new
archbishop for Lviv due to Soviet interference. John Paul II asked Jaworski to be the administrator of the archdiocese temporarily from
Lubaczow, Poland. Jaworski was then appointed apostolic administrator of
Lviv for territories within Poland in May 1984 and was consecrated
bishop on 23 June. When the Soviet Union fell, Jaworski was named Archbishop of Lviv by John Paul II on 16 January 1991. Jaworski set about rebuilding the diocese left shattered by 45 years of communist oppression. In 1992, Cardinal Jaworski was elected president of the Latin Church Bishops' conference for Ukraine. by
John Paul II in pectore, one of four such secret cardinal appointments he made while pope; Jaworski's cardinalate was made public at the consistory of 21 February 2001. He was one of the
cardinal electors who participated in the
2005 papal conclave that selected
Pope Benedict XVI. He surpassed the age of 80 in 2006, losing the right to participate in future conclaves. In October 2008, Pope Benedict XVI accepted his resignation as archbishop.
Death Cardinal Jaworski died two weeks after his 94th birthday in 2020. In his condolence letter, Pope Francis recalled Jaworkski's deep friendship with John Paul II, and his close collaboration, as a theologian and philosopher, with Pope Benedict XVI. For his part, Pope Francis said that Jaworski’s cardinalate was announced in 2001, at the same consistory where he, at the time, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, was also created a Cardinal. ==Publications==