Tadeusz Rydzyk
Polish priest
Tadeusz Rydzyk (Polish pronunciation: [taˈdɛ.uʂ ˈrɨd͡zɨk]; born 3 May 1945) is a Polish Redemptorist Catholic priest and activist. He is the founder and director of the conservative Radio Maryja station, and founder of the University of Social and Media Culture in Toruń.
Life and career
Tadeusz Rydzyk was born out of wedlock to his mother, the widowed Mrs. Rydzyk (née Piątek), whose first husband was killed in the Buchenwald concentration camp, and her boyfriend Bronisław Kordaszewski, a laborer with alcohol problems, and spent his childhood in Olkusz. He studied at the Higher Spiritual Seminary of Redemptorists in Tuchów, and later at the Catholic Theology Academy in Warsaw. He was ordained a priest in 1971 and taught religion in Toruń, Szczecinek and Kraków. In 1986 Rydzyk left for West Germany where he was involved with a radio station Radio Maria International in Balderschwang (later closed by the Catholic Church authorities for moving away from Catholic doctrine).
Following his return to Poland in 1991, Rydzyk started Radio Maryja. He established the Catholic newspaper Nasz Dziennik ('Our Daily') and the television station TV Trwam ('I Persist').
On 8 October 2009, Rydzyk earned a PhD in theology from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.
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