91-year-old Bishop Paweł Socha dies in Poland — RMF24

Bishop Emeritus Paweł Socha of the Zielona Góra–Gorzów Diocese has died in Poland at the age of 91. He belonged to the Congregation of the Mission, a religious community founded by Saint Vincent de Paul. RMF24 reports the hierarch’s death.

The Zielona Góra–Gorzów Diocese said that the date and place of the funeral will be announced later.

Ministry in the diocese

Paweł Socha was born on January 10, 1935, in Wojsławice near Radom. In 1951, he joined the Congregation of the Mission, and on May 22, 1958, he was ordained a priest at the Church of the Congregation of the Mission in Kraków.

In 1969, Socha earned a doctorate in theology. On November 16, 1973, Pope Paul VI appointed him auxiliary bishop of the newly established Gorzów Diocese. He received episcopal ordination on December 26 of the same year from Cardinal Karol Wojtyła.

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Work in the episcopate and honors

Within the Polish Bishops’ Conference, Paweł Socha chaired the Commission for Clergy Affairs from 1980 to 1996. In 1990, he took part in the Eighth Synod of Bishops in Rome, dedicated to the formation of priests.

The bishop retired in 2012, when he was 77 years old. In 2018, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross, and in 2024, the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.

Latest public appeals

Even at an advanced age, Socha remained active in pastoral work. In March, he urged bishops to focus less on constant planning, activism, statistics and measurable success, and more on jointly listening to what God says and commands them to do.

Speaking about sexual scandals in the Catholic Church, the bishop stressed the need for truth, justice and purification. He also noted that the conversion of hearts is more important than structural reforms.