Roman Catholic Cardinal. Born at the Deskur palace in Sancygniów to a noble family of French origins, Andrzej Maria Deskur earned a doctorate in law from the Jagellonian University of Kraków before entering the local seminary. Furthering his studies at the Catholic University of Fribourg in Switzerland, receiving a doctorate in moral theology with specialty in social sciences, he was ordained priest at St. Bonnet-les-Oules in France by Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyon, on August 20, 1950. Joining the Vatican Secretariat of State in September 1952, serving as undersecretary of the Pontifical Commission for Cinema, Radio and Television and secretary of the Secretariat for the Press during the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council, he was named undersecretary of the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications in 1964 and eventually its secretary in 1970 and its president in 1974, receiving on June 30 of the latter year, his episcopal consecration with the titular see of Tene from Pope Paul VI at St. Peter's Patriarchal Vatican Basilica. One of the promoters of the radio station "Radio Veritas" for countries in Asia and Oceania, he visited some seventy countries on five continents and for several years was one of the few connectors between the Church in Poland and the Vatican. Promoted to the title of archbishop on February 15, 1980, Pope John Paul II created him cardinal in the consistory of May 25, 1985 with the deaconry of San Cesareo in Palatio, the same titular church held by the named Pontiff before his election to the Papacy. A lifelong personal friend of Pope John Paul, Deskur was one of his most trusted advisors. Traditionally, he ate Sunday lunch every week with the Pontiff, and having suffered a crippling stroke on the eve of the conclave that elected him to the Papacy, Karol Wojtyła paid him a visit at the Gemelli Polyclinic on the day after his election. Wheelchair-bound since October 13, 1978 after suffering the said stroke which paralyzed the left side of his body while he was preparing to celebrate mass, Deskur devoted himself to the office of spiritual director at the pre-seminary St. Pius X and was particularly involved in the matter of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel. Retiring from the presidency of the Pontifical Council of Social Communications in 1984, he was the initiator of the first religious broadcast using artificial satellites. Named president of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate Conception of Rome in 1987, he received an honorary doctorate from the faculty of theology of the Pontifical Academy of Theology of Kraków in 1991 and was furthermore awarded among others the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and the Grand Cross of the Order of Malta and the Order of White Eagle of Poland. Opting for the order of cardinal priests, his deaconry was elevated 'pro hac vice' to title on January 29, 1996. Passing away inside his apartment at Palazzo San Carlo inside Vatican City, his body was flown back to Poland and buried in the crypt of the Shrine of Saint Pope John Paul II in Kraków.