Kazimierz Nycz was born in Stara Wieś. Nycz was educated at the primary school in Stara Wieś; Lyceum of Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Czechowice-Dziedzice where he graduated in 1967; he then entered the Major Seminary of Kraków. He received the diaconate from Cardinal Karol Wojtyła on 8 May 1972, and was ordained to the priesthood on 20 May 1973 by Bishop Julian Groblicki. In 1976, he obtained a bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Theology of Papieska Akademia Teologiczna, of Kraków; then, in 1977, he started his doctoral studies at the Catholic University of Lublin, where in 1981, he earned a doctorate in catechetical studies. From 1973 to 1975 he was a vicar in a parish of Saint Elisabeth in Jaworzno. On 14 May 1988, Nycz was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Kraków and Titular Bishop of Villa Regis. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 4 June from Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, with Archbishops Jerzy Ablewicz and Stanisław Nowak serving as co-consecrators. On 26 November 1999, he was named chairman of the Committee for Catholic Education; his main interest was to seek ways to find the opportunities offered by schools for catechetical activities and to search for forms of parish catechesis. As chairman of the Commission for Education of the Conference of the Polish Episcopate, the center of his activities was adapting the Polish catechesis to the post-Vatican II catechetical documents of the Church, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the General Directory for Catechesis; and to correlate the teaching of religion in the school with the requirements of the reformed schools He was promoted to Bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg on 9 June 2004. On 3 March 2007, Pope Benedict XVI named Nycz, who was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land at the time, as the successor of Stanisław Wielgus as Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw. Wielgus abruptly resigned on 7 January after admitting to his former collaboration with the Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the Communist secret police in Poland. Nycz's appointment was greatly welcomed, and his installation as Archbishop of Warsaw took place during Palm Sunday on 1 April 2007, at St. John's Cathedral. In addition to his role as Archbishop, he was named Bishop to the Eastern Catholics in Poland on 9 June 2007. He holds a doctorate from the University of Lublin, was vice-rector of the Major Seminary of Kraków from 1987 to 1988, and organized the last visit of Pope John Paul II to Poland. Records of Służba Bezpieczeństwa show that Nycz had repeatedly refused to enter their services. He was created and proclaimed Cardinal-Priest of Ss. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti on 20 November 2010. On 29 December 2010 Nycz was appointed a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and the Congregation for the Clergy. He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that elected Pope Francis.
