KOZŁOWIECKI Card. Adam, S.J.
By Stephen Mbobu
Our Law Faculty building is named Kozlowieck Hall. Ever asked yourself who this was? Cardinal Adam Kozlowiecki, S.J. was one of the founding fathers of CUEA.
Cardinal Adam Kozłowiecki, S.J., former Archbishop of Lusaka and a missionary in Zambia, was born on 1 April 1911 in Huta Komorowska, Poland, and was ordained for the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) on 24 June 1937.
This extraordinary man renounced his noble title and family property, before he joined the Jesuit order. As a priest, he spent five and a half years in Nazi extermination camps – Auschwitz and Dachau. In 1939 he and 24 confrères were arrested by the Gestapo in Kraków and then sent to Auschwitz. Six months later he was transferred to Dachau, where he remained until the end of the war.
After his release the Vicar General proposed that he goes to then-Northern Rhodesia, where the Polish Jesuits had a mission. He taught there for several years.
Once again, he was giving up his plans, accepting the will of God. He was a builder of local churches, schools, houses for teachers and hospitals. His work found quick recognition from his superiors, who in turn entrusted him with the most important church offices in Zambia. He became a prominent figure in the history of the African Church, especially in Zambia.
Later, the Holy See created a new metropolitan see in Lusaka in 1950 and Adam Kozłowiecki was later on 25 April 1959 appointed the first metropolitan archbishop of that city. He became the first president of the Episcopal Conference of Zambia, was a member of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Zambia.
As the mission grew he was named titular Bishop of Diospoli inferiore and Vicar Apostolic on 4 June 1955 and ordained on 11 September, 1955.
He resigned from the Lusaka see in 1969 so that an African Priest could be appointed Archbishop. While remaining in Zambia, on 29 May 1969 he was transferred to the titular church of Potenza Picena with the title of Archbishop.
One may also presume that his participation in conciliar meetings and discussions was not the only reason Kozłowiecki was noticed by the then-young bishop of Cracow, who would later (February 21, 1998) name him as cardinal at the age of 87, of the Title of S. Andrea al Quirinale (St. Andrew on the Quirinal). He became the first Polish Jesuit to receive a cardinal’s hat.
Adam Kozłowiecki was a friend of Pope John Paul II, a participant in the Second Vatican Council and in the first Synod of Bishops in 1967, and in the 1994 Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to Africa.
A human rights defender who had contributed to gaining full independence by Zambia in 1964, and at the same time – above all – an extremely modest and humble missionary. For his achievements, he was honoured with the highest French, Zambian and Polish awards. He was greatly esteemed throughout the world; he knew five popes and two queens, and had a command of ten languages.
This dignity was first and foremost an acknowledgment of the multiple achievements of a missionary and a bishop who had dedicated his life to his new home country and its people.
For the same reason he received several state decorations from Zambia, Poland, and France, as well as two doctorates honoris causa: one from The Catholic University of Eastern Africa (Nairobi, Kenya), and another from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (Warsaw, Poland).
He continued to serve as a missionary in Zambia and was a member of the Congregation for Evangelization of Peoples from 1970 to 1991.
He lived to the age of 96, having spent more than 60 years working for the Jesuit missions in Northern Rhodesia, later Zambia. Cardinal Adam Kozłowiecki died on 28 September 2007 and was buried in Lusaka.
Background information sourced from:
1.God’s Stopgap: Cardinal Adam Kozłowiecki, S.J. Robert Danieluk, S.J. Article on: https://www.sciencedirect.com/org/science/article/pii/S2214132420000692
2. Vatican Press
3. https://jesuitonlinebibliography.bc.edu/catalog/25065
4. http://www.cardinalekozlowiecki.pl/index.php/english-info/