Michael Czerny

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His Eminence

Michael F. Czerny

SJ
Under-Secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
Czerny standing in front of the sculpture Angels Unawares
Czerny in front of Angels Unawares
ChurchLatin Church
Appointed14 December 2016
Installed1 January 2017
Other post(s)Cardinal Deacon of  [it] (2019–present)
Orders
Ordination9 June 1973
by Thomas Benjamin Fulton
Consecration4 October 2019
by Pope Francis
Created cardinal5 October 2019
by Pope Francis
RankCardinal deacon
Personal details
Birth nameMichael F. Czerny
Born (1946-07-18) 18 July 1946 (age 75)
Brno, Czechoslovakia
NationalityCanadian
DenominationRoman Catholic
Previous post(s)Titular Archbishop of Beneventum (2019)
Alma mater
  • Gonzaga University
  • University of Chicago
MottoSuscipe
('Receive')
Ordination history of
Michael Czerny
History
Priestly ordination
Date9 June 1973
PlaceRegis College, Willowdale, Ontario, Canada
Episcopal consecration
Principal consecratorPope Francis
Co-consecrators
  • Pietro Parolin
  • Peter Turkson
Date4 October 2019
PlaceSt. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City
Cardinalate
Elevated byPope Francis
Date5 October 2019
Source(s):[1][2]
Styles of
Michael F. Czerny
Coat of arms of Michael Czerny.svg
Reference styleHis Eminence
Spoken styleYour Eminence
Informal styleCardinal

Michael F. Czerny SJ (born 18 July 1946) is a Czechoslovakian-born Canadian cardinal of the Catholic Church. He serves as Under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Holy See's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development since 2017. A member of the Jesuits, Czerny has worked to promote social justice in Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Rome. Pope Francis announced he would make him a cardinal on 5 October 2019.[3]

Biography[]

Michael Czerny was born in Brno, Czechoslovakia, on 18 July 1946, and his family immigrated to Canada by ship in 1948.[4] Following his 1963 graduation from Loyola High School in Montreal, Czerny joined the Jesuits on 14 August 1964. On 9 June 1973 he was ordained a priest for the then Upper Canadian Province (now Jesuit Province of Canada) in Willowdale, Ontario. He obtained his doctorate in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Chicago in 1978.[5]

Czerny co-founded the Jesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice in Toronto in 1979, and he was the first director until 1989. In 1990–1991, following the murder of six Jesuits and others at the University of Central America in San Salvador, he assumed the director's role of the University's Institute for Human Rights (IDHUCA), a position that had been held by one of the murdered priests.[6] He was also Vice-Rector for Social Outreach ("Vicerrector de Proyección Social", in Spanish).

From 1992 to 2002, Czerny worked in the Social Justice Secretariat at the Jesuit General Curia in Rome. In 2002 he founded the African Jesuit AIDS Network and directed it until 2010. During these nine years, he initiated and coordinated efforts by Jesuits and others in nearly 30 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa to provide pastoral care, education, health services, social and spiritual support, and to fight stigma for victims of HIV/AIDS, and channelled resources from foreign sources. During that time, he also taught at Hekima University College in Nairobi.[5] In 2009, he argued that condoms were ineffective in preventing the spread of HIV in Africa's general population, despite their success "outside Africa and amongst identifiable sub-groups (e.g. prostitutes, gay men)".[7][8]

Czerny worked in Rome at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace[5] as the personal assistant to Cardinal Peter Turkson from 2010 to 2016.[9]

On 14 December 2016, Pope Francis appointed him under-secretary of the Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, effective 1 January 2017, along with Scalabrinian Father Fabio Baggio.[5] Discussing his new responsibility, he called migration "one of the most important and urgent human phenomena of our times", adding: "There’s hardly a place in the planet which is not touched by this phenomenon. Indeed, though many are not aware of it, there are more people moving in Russia and China today than in any other part of the world.”[9]

In 2016 he commissioned Timothy Schmalz to create the Angels Unawares sculpture that depicts a boat carrying migrants and refugees wearing clothes that identify them with a variety of cultures and time periods. It was inaugurated in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican in 2019.[10]

Francis named him a voting member of the October 2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment.[11]

In October 2018, he said the rhetoric used to describe migration and refugee movements was misleading. He said: "It's not a crisis. It's a series of mismanagements and poor policies and self-interested manipulations. The numbers that we're talking about, even on the total scale, are not at all that great."[12]

On 4 May 2019, Francis named him one of two Special Secretaries for the October 2019 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region.[13] At the press conference introducing the Synod's concluding document, he said the Church needs to learn to respect cultural differences: "Not to assume that the way I am or the way we are is definitive, is the norm, is the way it has to be … differences have to be embraced". Asked to define what the synod's participants meant by "synodality", he said: "Everyone had a sense of what it meant because we were doing it. Could we explain that in words... does it matter?".[14] A few years before, in 2015, he wrote that there were "limitations and fragmentations" among the organizations of the Amazon before REPAM but the organization coordinated the work of the Catholic Church in the Amazon region and has worked to defend indigenous peoples and the environment.[15]

On 1 September 2019, Pope Francis announced he would make him a cardinal on 4 October 2019. Czerny was surprised by the announcement, which he heard in Guararema, Brazil, meeting with representatives of the popular movements to prepare for the synod.[16] In accordance with the norm that all cardinals should be bishops, Francis consecrated Czerny a bishop on 4 October, making him titular archbishop of Benevento.[17] The co-consecrators were Cardinals Pietro Parolin and Peter Turkson.[18]

On 5 October 2019, Pope Francis made him a cardinal.[19] His coat of arms is composed of a green field evocative of Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato si', a gold boat carrying a family of four refugees, the seal of the Society of Jesus, and the word "suscipe", the word that opens the prayer in the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola: Suscipe, Domine, universam meam libertatem (“Take, Lord, all my liberty") and also evokes the Gospel command to "receive" the stranger. Czerny's pectoral cross, made by the Italian artist Domenico Pellegrino, is fashioned from the remains of a boat used by migrants to cross the Mediterranean Sea and reach the Italian island of Lampedusa.[20][21]

Czerny was appointed a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on 21 February 2020.[22]

Czerny was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on 8 July 2020.[23]

Czerny was appointed a member of the jury of the for Human Fraternity in June 2021.

Books[]

  • Michael Czerny; Jamie Swift; Robert Ganton Clarke (1994). Getting Started on Social Analysis in Canada. Between The Lines.
  • Michael Czerny; Bénézet Bujo (2007). Aids in Africa: Theological Reflections. Paulines Publications Africa. ISBN 978-9966-081-87-2.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Pope Names 13 New Cardinals, Including Canadian Jesuit Father Michael Czerny". Jesuits of Canada. 1 September 2019. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  2. ^ "The new Cardinals: New Cardinals created by Pope Francis at the 5 October Consistory" (PDF). L'Osservatore Romano. Vatican City. 11 October 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Fr Michael Czerny, SJ: a new Cardinal for the peripheries".
  4. ^ Swan, Michael (October 10, 2019). "Czerny family's experience as refugees helped shape future cardinal". Canadian Catholic News. Retrieved Jan 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Rinunce e Nomine, 14.12.2016" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  6. ^ Conlon, Mickey (Nov 3, 2019). "Cardinal Czerny's courageous past in El Salvador remembered". Crux. Retrieved Jan 25, 2020.
  7. ^ Reidy, Tim (25 March 2009). "Africa, AIDS & Condoms". America. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  8. ^ Czerny, Michael (29 November 2010). "An African View of Church and HIV" (Interview). Catholic Radio and Television Network. Retrieved 4 May 2019 – via Zenit.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b O'Connell, Gerard (14 December 2016). "Pope Francis appoints Jesuit and Scalabrini priests to new Vatican department for refugees". America. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  10. ^ Williams, Megan (29 September 2019). "Canadian artist's bronze statue depicting plight of refugees in boat unveiled at St. Peter's Square in Rome". CBC. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  11. ^ Wooden, Cindy (17 September 2018). "Vatican publishes list of synod participants, including papal nominees". America. Catholic News Service. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  12. ^ O'Loughlin, Michael J. (24 October 2018). "Vatican expert: Tone down the crisis rhetoric on human migration". America. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  13. ^ "Resignations and Appointments, 04.05.2019" (Press release). Holy See Press Office. 4 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  14. ^ Mares, Courtney (27 October 2019). "Church must convert from cultural, ecological sins, Amazon synod concludes". Catholic Herald. Retrieved 28 January 2020.
  15. ^ "Vatican Presents Initiative to Protect Amazon". Zenit. 2 March 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  16. ^ "Pope to create cardinals from 13 countries in October". Catholic News Service. Retrieved 2 September 2019.
  17. ^ "Ordinazione Episcopale conferita dal Santo Padre Francesco, 04.10.2019" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 4 October 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Il Papa ordina quattro nuovi vescovi: non rinnegate il popolo di Dio". Vatican News (in Italian). 4 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Concistoro Ordinario Pubblico: Assegnazione dei Titoli, 05.10.2019" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 5 October 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  20. ^ "Cardinal Czerny: My family during World War II - Vatican News". www.vaticannews.va. 2019-12-07. Retrieved 2020-01-26.
  21. ^ "A migrant's cross for a new Jesuit cardinal". America Magazine. 4 October 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  22. ^ "Rinunce e nomine, 21.02.2020" (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 21 February 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  23. ^ "Rinunce e nomine, 08.07.2020". Bolletino Sala Stampa della Santa Sede. 8 July 2020.
Additional sources
Catholic Church titles
New office Under Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development
2016–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Javier Lozano Barragán 		Cardinal-Deacon of  [it]
2019–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Konrad Krajewski 		— TITULAR —
Archbishop of Beneventum
23 September 2019 – 5 October 2019 		Succeeded by
Mitja Leskovar
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