Church Roman Catholic See Riga Birth name Zbignev Stankevics Name Zbignevs Stankevics Predecessor Janis Pujats Ordination June 16, 1996 Appointed June 19, 2010 | Archdiocese Riga Installed 21 August 2010 Nationality Latvian Role Religious Leader Metropolis Riga Consecration August 8, 2010 | |
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Born 15 February 1955 (age 69)
Lejasciems Latvia ( 1955-02-15 ) Education Pontifical Lateran University | ||
Zbignevs Stankevics (Polish: Zbigniew Stankiewicz; born 15 February 1955) is a Latvian Roman Catholic Archbishop. He was appointed metropolitan archbishop of Riga on 19 June 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. He previously served as Spiritual Director and Director of the Seminary Institute of Religious Sciences in Riga.
Ecclesiastical career
Stankevics was born in Lejasciems into a family of Polish descent. In 1978, he obtained the Diploma in Engineering at the Riga Polytechnical Institute. He worked for 12 years prior to pursuing religious studies, first at a naval centre and then at a bank. At that time, he was Vice President of the 'Polish Union of Latvia'. After the fall of communism in Europe and the restoration of Latvian independence he entered the seminary in 1990 in Lublin, Poland. He studied philosophy and theology at the Catholic University of Lublin, receiving a Masters in Theology in 1996. He was ordained a priest on 16 June 1996 for the archdiocese of Riga.
After ordination he held the following positions: assistant priest of St Francis Parish in Riga (1996–2001), chaplain of the Missionary Sisters of Charity (1996–1999), Assistant Community charismatic "Effata", Spiritual Director Major Seminary of Riga (1999–2001).
From 2002 to 2008 he completed his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he obtained his licentiate and doctorate summa cum laude in Fundamental Theology. During his stay in Rome, he was Director of the Blessed Pius IX Residence of the Pontifical Lateran University. In 2008, he became spiritual director of the Riga Major Seminary, director of the Institute of Religious Studies and assistant priest of Christ the King Parish in Riga.
In addition to Latvian and Polish, he also speaks Lithuanian, Russian, Italian and English, and knows French and German.
He was consecrated bishop on Sunday, 8 August 2010 by Cardinal Pujats, assisted by Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, the apostolic nuncio to the Baltic states, and by Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk, the primate of Poland. The ceremony occurred in the Evangelical Lutheran cathedral in Riga, which had been the Roman Catholic cathedral prior to the Protestant Reformation. The current Roman Catholic cathedral is too small to accommodate all of the political and religious dignitaries, including Latvian president Valdis Zatlers, who attended the three-hour ceremony.
Zbignevs Stankevics was installed as metropolitan archbishop of Riga on Saturday, 21 August 2010 in the Cathedral Basilica of St. James. Cardinal Joachim Meisner, Archbishop of Cologne, also attended.
On 12 June 2012 he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity for a five-year renewable term.