New Bishop for the Diocese of Port Pirie SA
On 1 August 2020, Pope Francis appointed Fr Karol Kulczycki SDS as the twelfth bishop of the Diocese of Port Pirie. Dating back to 1887, the Port Pirie diocese covers the Yorke and Eyre Peninsulas, Flinders Ranges, Nullarbor Plain, and Mid and Far North regions of South Australia. It is an area of 980,000 square Kilometres, or most of the state of South Australia north to and including Uluru (Ayers Rock).
Bishop Kulczycki’s episcopal ordination was on Tuesday, 29 September 2020, the Feast of the Archangels, in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Trzebinia Poland – the same church in which he was ordained a priest in 1994. Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, Apostolic Nuncio to Australia, was the principal celebrant, assisted by the Archbishop of Krakow and the Auxiliary Bishop of Wroclaw. The ordination Mass included English and was available live online on the same day at 7pm Sydney time via the Polish Catholic television station TRWAM.
The live channel was available online at www.tv-trwam.pl/na-zywo. Note, the Polish language is used by the television service; the ordination Mass included English. The online service was also available via this link which includes the service booklet.
Video: On-demand service from the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Trzebinia Poland
"Australia's newest bishop ordained in Poland" news report at The Southern Cross for the Archdiocese of Adelaide
Bishop Karol Kulczycki was installed as the Bishop of Port Pirie at St Mark's Cathedral in Port Pirie on Wednesday, 28 October 2020.
Video: On-demand installation service from St Mark's Cathedral in Port Pirie
Bishop Karol Kulczycki was born in Góra, Poland in 1966. He spent his early years in Czernin near the Baltic Sea. He entered the Society of the Divine Saviour (the Salvatorians) in 1987 and professed solemn vows in 1992. In 1994, he was ordained a priest in Poland and began to serve there in the Salvatorian vocational office.
He transferred to Australia in 1997 and then spent 21 years serving the Church in Western Australia as chaplain, parochial vicar and pastor in the Archdiocese of Perth and Diocese of Geraldton. He is an Australian citizen.
He served as Provincial Superior for the Salvatorians in Australia from 2010 to 2018. In 2018, he returned to Poland where he had been serving as Vice Provincial of the Polish Province of the Salvatorians.
I have placed my trust in God and pray that I may fulfil the call which He has given me.
Fr Karol Kulczycki
www.pp.catholic.org.au