On Thursday 22 March 2018, Pope Francis appointed three new judges of the Ecclesiastical Court of the Vicariate of Vatican City. One of them is our confrere Friar Robert LEŻOHUPSKI, OFM Conv.
Friar Robert was born on September 7, 1974 in Gdansk, Poland. From 1989 to 1993, he attended a classical lyceum [prestigious preparatory high school]. From 1993 to 1998 he studied at the University of Gdansk, where he graduated with a degree in law.
A year earlier (1997) he entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual through the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk). He made his solemn vows in 2002 and was ordained a priest in 2004. He completed his Philosophical-Theological studies at the Major Seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Łódź Łagiewniki and graduated from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw.
In 2008, he obtained a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome.
From 2009 to 2012, he worked at the Faculty of Theology in the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, as a professor of canon law. At the same time, he was the head of university pastoral care (the “Porziuncola” community at the friary).
In 2012 he left for the mission in Kenya, where – in addition to carrying out missionary and pastoral ministry for the Provincial Custody of St. Francis of Assisi in Kenya, he also lectured in canon law at various universities and directed the Canon Law Department of Tangaza University College.
In 2016 he was called to work at the Apostolic Penitentiary Tribunal in the Vatican.
He teaches canon law (questions of internal forum) at the Pontifical Urban University of Rome.
His hobbies include hiking and climbing in the high mountains and studying history.
The Ecclesiastical Court of the Vicariate of Vatican City was instituted on November 21, 1987, by Pope St. John Paul II with his motu proprio, Quo Civium Iura. It was established for that part of the territory of the Diocese of Rome which falls within Vatican City. It is modeled on the diocesan tribunal, but the magistrates are appointed by the Supreme Pontiff and the appeal against its sentences can only be brought before the Roman Rota.
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