Paweł Socha (bishop)

Bishop Socha was born in the Roman Catholic family in a present day Masovian Voivodeship. After graduation of the school education, joined the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers) in 1951;^[1] he made a solemn profession on 8 December 1956, and was ordained as priest on 22 May 1958,^[2] after graduation of the Major Vincentians Theological Seminary in Kraków, Poland and a Fundamental Theology at the Catholic University of Lublin, Poland.^[1]

After his ordination he was engaged in the pastoral and missionary work and from 1962 he was a professor at the Major Theological Seminary in Gościkowo-Paradyż. Simultaneously he continued to study in the Catholic University of Lublin with obtaining a Doctor of Theology degree in 1969. Also from 1975 until 1978, as a bishop, he was a rector of the same Major Theological Seminary.^[1]

On 20 November 1973 he was appointed by the Pope Paul VI as the auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gorzów and titular bishop of Thunigaba. On 26 December 1973 he was consecrated as bishop by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, future Pope John Paul II, and other prelates of the Roman Catholic Church.^[2]

In 1974 Socha was appointed as vicar general of the same diocese^[1] (it was renamed as the Diocese of Zielona Góra-Gorzów on 25 March 1992), and fulfilled this duty until his retirement on 16 January 2012.