Archbishop describes first deacons as ‘the first cardinals in the Church’

H/T to Deacon Joe Dant for alerting me to this: Crux has a terrific profile of Cardinal-designate Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, whose attachment to and love of the poor is remarkable and moving:

His milieu is among those that don’t have anything: the poor, the homeless, the migrants.

Krajewski, 54, invites the poor every day into his Vatican apartment for lunch. Around 15 needy people eat in his dining room, surrounded by the old furniture of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI. Lunches – for the record, featuring perhaps one of the best pastas in the city – are cooked by a strong and tall former prisoner, who told me: “When you journalists write about the Church, you should write about what this man is doing.”

Right now seems an opportune time to do so, as “this man” was just promoted to the Church’s major leagues.

A native of Łódź, Poland, Krajewski is one of the few cardinals-to-be walking around the Vatican in a black soft-shell sports jacket. Affectionately known as “Don Corrado,” Krajewski has been a Vatican insider since the pontificate of John Paul II, at which time he was responsible for papal ceremonies.

Pope Francis appointed him Papal Almoner, a position which requires distributing Vatican charity funds and putting into action what the pope calls the “field hospital” of the Church. One could say, after observing him, it’s a job Krajewski enjoys to the core – in fact, one of the reasons Francis chose him may have been hearing stories about the Polish bishop in the Vatican who gives out blankets and food to the poor in his free time.

For that reason, Krajewski may be one of the best personifications of what the pope always says to priests, that they should smell like their sheep: “Once, I visited the Holy Father right after eating breakfast with the homeless,” Krajewski said. “All the guests in those elegant rooms could smell the Church!”

But this quote really jumped out at me:

Archbishop Grzegorz Ryś of Łódź (Krajewski’s hometown), commented on Krajewski’s nomination as a cardinal: “It reminded me of the first cardinals in the history of the Church, seven deacons who were acting every day in the service of mercy. His appointment is a day of happiness for us, but [also] a reminder that putting mercy into practice is our duty.”

Once, Krajewski gave up his apartment for a family of refugees, moving to his office for a while. He actually told the pope once that he may go to prison due to his work with refugees, which, he said, a lot of time is “not that compatible with the law.”

“I will pay you a visit!” he said Francis replied.

Read it all. What an inspiration.