[1][2] In 1974 he earned a bachelor's degree in theological studies in Poznań, and from 1973 to 1975 served as a parochial vicar at Saint Martin's parish in Odalnów.

John Paul II appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Poznań on 17 May 1997, and he received his episcopal consecration on 29 June 1997 from Juliusz Paetz.

Pope Francis appointed him Metropolitan Archbishop of Kraków to succeed Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, and he was installed there on 28 January 2017.

[3] When Poland's government began to subsidize in vitro treatments, he said that IVF was an assault on the dignities of all people and suggested that infertile couples should resort to adoption rather than something that would go above the creative power.

He was speaking at an adolescent catechesis in Pabianice about the importance of accepting one's own gender when he called upon people to oppose "misanthropic egalitarianism", which he lamented has "become fashionable in recent years".

He dubbed it an "anti-Christian festival", and urged both parents and teachers to protect children "against its images of terror and dread" that were the opposite of the Christian message.

The then-Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła lived at the Polish College when in Rome and demonstrated a keen interest in its students and their studies.