Michael Felix Czerny | |
|---|---|
| Prefect of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development | |
 Czerny in 2019 | |
| Church | Latin Church |
| Installed | 23 April 2022 |
| Predecessor | Peter Turkson |
| Other post | Cardinal Deacon ofSan Michele Arcangelo a Pietralata (2019–present) |
| Previous posts |
|
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 9 June 1973 by Thomas Benjamin Fulton |
| Consecration | 4 October 2019 by Pope Francis |
| Created cardinal | 5 October 2019 by Pope Francis |
| Rank | Cardinal-Deacon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Michael Felix Czerny (1946-07-18)18 July 1946 (age 79) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Alma mater | |
| Motto | Suscipe (Receive) |
Ordination history of Michael Czerny | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Styles of Michael F. Czerny | |
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 | |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Religious style | Cardinal |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
Michael Felix CzernySJ (born 18 July 1946) is aCzech-bornCanadian Catholic prelate who has served as prefect of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development since 2022. He was under secretary of the dicastery's Migrants and Refugees Section from 2017 to 2022.Pope Francis made him acardinal in 2019.
A member of theJesuits, Czerny has worked to promote social justice in Canada, Latin America, Africa, and Rome.
Michael Czerny was born inBrno,Czechoslovakia, on 18 July 1946.[1] His mother's family were Jewish converts to Catholicism. After the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia, his maternal grandparents and two of his mother's brothers were interned inTerezín, where his grandfather died. The others were moved toAuschwitz and the brothers died in labor camps. Michael's mother, because she was Jewish, was forced into farm labor and then imprisoned for 20 months; his father was forced to farm labor for refusing to divorce her.[2] His parents immigrated to Canada by ship in 1948, bringing Michael and his brother.[1]
Following his 1963 graduation fromLoyola High School inMontreal, Czerny joined the Jesuits on 14 August 1964.[3] He did his novitiate inGuelph, Ontario, and then studied classics and philosophy atGonzaga University inSpokane, Washington, earning his bachelor's degree in classics and philosophy in 1968. He taught for a year atGonzaga High School inSt. John's, he pursued further studies in theology in Chicago and atRegis College in Toronto.[4] On 9 June 1973, he was ordained a priest for the Upper Canadian Province (now theJesuit Province of Canada) inWillowdale,Ontario. He obtained his doctorate in interdisciplinary studies from theUniversity of Chicago in 1978.[3]
Czerny co-founded theJesuit Centre for Social Faith and Justice inToronto in 1979, and he was the first director until 1989. In 1990–1991, following themurder of six Jesuits and others at theUniversity of Central America inSan 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.[5] He was also Vice-Rector for Social Outreach.[citation needed]
From 1992 to 2002, Czerny worked in the Social Justice Secretariat at the Jesuit General Curia in Rome. In 2002, he founded theAfrican 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 atHekima University College in Nairobi.[3] 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)".[6][7]
Czerny worked in Rome at thePontifical Council for Justice and Peace,[3] where he was the personal assistant to CardinalPeter Turkson from 2010 to 2016.[8] On 14 December 2016,Pope Francis appointed him under-secretary of theMigrants and Refugees Section of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, effective 1 January 2017, along with Scalabrinian FatherFabio Baggio.[3] 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."[8] Also in 2016, he commissionedTimothy Schmalz to create theAngels 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 inSt. Peter's Square in the Vatican in 2019.[9]
Francis named him a voting member of the October 2018Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment.[10] In October 2018, Czerny said the rhetoric used to describe migration and refugee movements was misleading: "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."[11]
On 4 May 2019, Czerny was appointed as one of two Special Secretaries for the October 2019Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon region by Pope Francis.[12] 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 bysynodality, he said: "Everyone had a sense of what it meant because we were doing it. Could we explain that in words... does it matter?"[13] A few years before, in 2015, he wrote that there were "limitations and fragmentations" among the organizations of theAmazon beforeREPAM but the organization coordinated the work of the Catholic Church in the Amazon region and has worked to defend indigenous peoples and the environment.[14]
On 1 September 2019, Pope Francis announced he would make Czerny acardinal in theconsistory of 5 October 2019. Czerny was surprised by the announcement, which he heard while he was inGuararema, Brazil, meeting with representatives of the popular movements to prepare for the synod.[15] In accordance with the norm that all cardinals should be bishops, Francis consecrated Czerny a bishop on 4 October, the day before he was scheduled to become a cardinal, making himtitular archbishop ofBeneventum.[16] The co-consecrators were CardinalsPietro Parolin andPeter Turkson.[17] As planned on 5 October, Pope Francis elevated him to become a cardinal, in the order ofcardinal deacons.[18][a] He became Cardinal-Deacon of San Michele Arcangelo.
Czerny was named a member of theCongregation for the Evangelization of Peoples on 21 February 2020[21] and a member of thePontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue on 8 July 2020.[22] Czerny was appointed a member of the jury of theZayed Award for Human Fraternity in June 2021.[citation needed] In December 2021, in accepting the resignation of Cardinal Turkson as prefect of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Pope Francis named Czerny as temporary prefect effective from 1 January 2022.[23] His interim status was removed and he was appointed to a five-year term as prefect of the Dicastery on 23 April 2022.[24]
After theRussian invasion of Ukraine, Cardinal Czerny was sent byPope Francis with humanitarian aid toUkraine in March 2022, along with the papal almoner, CardinalKonrad Krajewski.[25] This mission, which involved several trips,[26][27] and follozwed the pope's personal visit to the Russian Embassy to plead for peace, was part of a significant escalation of Vatican diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the violent invasion.[28]
Czerny participated as acardinal elector in the2025 papal conclave that electedPope Leo XIV.[29] Ahead of the election, Czerny toldThe New York Times that "unity", a theme highlighted by some electors, "means reversal", stating, "If you ask me, 'How would you name the wrong track for the conclave?' I would say the idea that unity is the priority."[30] He told the same newspaper, "I can think of some African cardinals — they make me shudder", explaining that some conservatives supported African candidates to further an agenda, and stating, "that’s why ... it’s so, so, so stupid to say things like Africa's time has come."[31]
A 25-minute documentary film about Czerny premiered in Brno in 2025. It focused on his family background and the history of Catholics with Jewish ancestry.[32][33]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by | — TITULAR — Archbishop of Beneventum 2019–2019 | Succeeded by |
| New office | Under Secretary of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development 2016–present | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Cardinal-Deacon ofSan Michele Arcangelo a Pietralata 2019–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | Prefect of theDicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development 2022–present | |
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| Primatial See of Quebec |  | |
| Metropolitan See of Montreal | ||
| Metropolitan See of Toronto | ||
| Exempt See of Winnipeg | ||
| Roman Curia | ||
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