Józef Kowalczyk

Józef Kowalczyk (; born 28 August 1938) is a Polish Roman Catholic prelate, canon lawyer and diplomat who, from 1989 to 2010, served as the first apostolic nuncio to Poland since World War II. He later served as archbishop of Gniezno near Tarnów. In 1956 he began to study at the Seminary of Olsztyn, a successor institution of the Collegium Hosianum. He was ordained priest by auxiliary bishop Józef Drzazga on 14 January 1962 and nominated vicar at the parish of the Holy Trinity in Kwidzyn shortly thereafter. In October 1963, he began his training in canon law at the Catholic University of Lublin and moved to Rome to continue his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in February 1965. He earned his doctorate in canon law in 1968 and a diploma of advocate of the Roman Rota in 1971. He also received a diploma of archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives.

On 19 December 1969, Kowalczyk began to work at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In the years 1976–1978, he accompanied the nuncio for special assignments, Archbishop Luigi Poggi, on trips to the People's Republic of Poland. On 18 October 1978, two days after Cardinal Karol Wojtyła became Pope John Paul II, Kowalczyk was asked to set up a Polish section of the Vatican Secretariat of State. He went on as the head of this section until 1989. In this capacity, he often accompanied the pope in his foreign visits. Kowalczyk was additionally charged with the task of overseeing the translation and publication of works written by Wojtyła before his accession to papacy.

According to the daily ''Rzeczpospolita'', documents held by the Institute of National Remembrance indicate that, from 1982 until 1990, Kowalczyk was registered by the Polish Communist secret police (''Służba Bezpieczeństwa'') as a source of information under codename "Cappino". It is uncertain whether Kowalczyk knew to have been registered or that he agreed to it.

Nuncio to Poland

Following Solidarity's victory in the parliamentary election in June 1989, Poland resumed diplomatic relations with the Holy See on 17 July 1989. On 26 August 1989, Pope John Paul II nominated Kowalczyk as the first post-war apostolic nuncio to Poland. The pope consecrated him as titular archbishop of Heraclea in St. Peter's Basilica on 20 October 1989. Kowalczyk chose the words ''Fiat Voluntas Tua'' ("Thy will be done", quote from the ''Pater Noster'') as his episcopal motto; his episcopal coat of arms is charged with a cross, a pastoral staff, a star symbolizing the Blessed Virgin Mary, and a plough symbolizing Kowalczyk's rural origin. The nuncio arrived in Warsaw on 23 November 1989 and presented his letter of credence to President Wojciech Jaruzelski on 6 December 1989.

As nuncio, Kowalczyk presided over the reëstablishment of the military ordinariate