[3] He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) on 30 March 1969 in Wawel Cathedral, and then did pastoral work in Poronin until 1971.

[3] On 20 December 1995, Pope John Paul II appointed Ryłko secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity and Titular Bishop of Novica.

[5] He received his episcopal consecration on 6 January 1996 from John Paul II,[6] with Archbishops Giovanni Re and Jorge Mejía serving as co-consecrators.

[citation needed] As secretary, Ryłko served as the second-highest official of that council under Eduardo Francisco Pironio and James Stafford.

[3] On 11 January 1996 he was named a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and on 22 February a consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

[11] In November 2008, in an address to the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Laity, Ryłko said that the time has come for Christians to free themselves from their false inferiority complex against the so-called secular world, to be courageous disciples of Christ.