Meet your #newLAbishops
Birth Date: May 12, 1974
Birth Place: Czechowice-Dziedzice, Poland
Seminary: Saints Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, MI; and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, Italy
Ordination: January 12, 2002
Diocese: Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Bishop Szkredka was born in the town of Czechowice-Dziedzice in southern Poland, less than 50 miles from St. Pope John Paul II’s hometown of Wadowice. He began his studies for the priesthood at Kraków’s Metropolitan Seminary and continued at SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake, Michigan. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2002.
Following his ordination, Szkredka served as Parochial Vicar at St. Genevieve Church in Panorama City and at St. John the Baptist Church in Baldwin Park, before beginning graduate studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome in 2008. He returned to the Los Angeles Archdiocese to serve as a professor and formator at St. John’s Seminary in 2015 and earned his doctorate in Sacred Scripture in 2017.
Good morning, I am Fr. Slawomir Szkredka,
Thank you, Archbishop, for your kind words. We thank today God for the gift of four new bishops for this our local Church. And I am personally thankful to the Holy Father for calling me to this ministry. I feel like Saint Peter in chapter five of the Gospel of Luke, who humbly fell to Jesus’ knees and said: “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” But like Saint Peter, I also hear the word of Jesus: “Do not be afraid; from now on, you will be catching people.” I lower the nets at Jesus’ word, and I trust that the Lord will accomplish in me what he is calling me to do.
I entrust myself to the prayers of the people of God here in Los Angeles. Dear brothers and sisters, your faith and love have sustained and shaped my priestly ministry. Your kindness and patience toward me have been tangible signs of God’s mercy. I know the Lord will continue to bless me through you.
I am very much looking forward to working under the leadership of our shepherd, Archbishop José Gomez, and in collaboration with many lay and ordained ministers. I know Our Blessed Mother will teach us how to be good servants of the Lord.
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Dios ha bendecido a la Iglesia en Los Ángeles con la hermosa riqueza de muchas culturas e idiomas que se unen como un solo cuerpo de Cristo. Todos estamos bajo la mirada amorosa de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. “¿No estoy yo aquí, yo, que soy tu Madre?” – nos dice ella a cada uno de nosotros. En el Evangelio de San Juan, la Madre de Jesús nos pide: “Hagan todo lo que Él les diga”. Hoy, mis hermanos y hermanas, yo les pido a ustedes que oren por mí para que, siguiendo el ejemplo de la Virgen, yo pueda hacer todo lo que el Señor me diga.
“He’s a brilliant mind, all these studies from Rome, and yet has that piety, that kind of faith you would find in a regular parish.”
-Father Michael Masteller
Over two decades of priesthood, the native of Poland has earned the affection of parishioners from Fillmore to Santa Fe Springs, two doctorate degrees, and the gratitude of the newest generation of LA priests. Now, it’s apparently gotten the attention of Pope Francis, too.
LA’s four newest auxiliary bishops underlined Church unity as a top priority in remarks at an introductory press conference Tuesday morning.
