Stanisław Jan Dziwisz was born in Raba Wyżna, Poland, on 27 April 1939 and ordained a priest on 23 June 1963 — by the then-auxiliary bishop of Kraków, Karol Wojtyła, according to the Holy See biography and English Wikipedia (a simplified-language source names another bishop; the Holy See's version is used here). In October 1966 he became Wojtyła's personal secretary, a post he held through the entire 27-year pontificate of John Paul II, dying with the Pope in 2005. He was consecrated a bishop by John Paul II on 19 March 1998, after being named titular Bishop of San Leone and adjunct Prefect of the Papal Household (7 February 1998), and was raised to titular archbishop in 2003.
On 3 June 2005 Benedict XVI appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków (installed 27 August), and on 24 March 2006 created him a cardinal, with the title of Santa Maria del Popolo; he voted in the 2013 conclave. In November 2005 he opened the diocesan inquiry into John Paul II's heroic virtue, and his memoir A Life with Karol: My Forty-Year Friendship with the Man Who Became Pope (2008) became an international bestseller. Francis accepted his resignation on 8 December 2016. His motto is Sursum corda — “lift up your hearts.”
Consequential Quotes
As the Bishop of Krakow, I would like to assure all of you that the Catholic Church in Poland wants to follow the example of Pope John Paul II, and courageously uncover and reject everything which makes the life of the Polish Catholics depart from the Gospel.
You cannot come down from the cross.
Major Works & Initiatives
A Life with Karol
His memoir of forty years beside John Paul II.
Archbishop of Kraków
Eleven years in Wojtyła's former see.
Opened John Paul II's cause
Launched the diocesan inquiry into heroic virtue.
Controversies
The “Don Stanislao” documentary and the 2022 clearance
A November 2020 TVN24 documentary alleged that Dziwisz failed to investigate sexual abuse allegations while Archbishop of Kraków; in April 2022 a Vatican investigation conducted by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco cleared him of wrongdoing (Catholic News Agency, 22 April 2022).
The Groër affair
Wikipedia records that Dziwisz was instrumental in blocking an investigation into allegations of child abuse against the late Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna, after the Austrian bishops told John Paul II in 1998 they had moral certainty the allegations were true. He denies the allegations made against him in later years.