Pinoy priest named as Perth auxiliary bishop in Australia

Pope Leo XIV has appointed an Australian-based Filipino priest as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Perth.

According to a CBCP News report on Tuesday, Bishop-elect Nelson Po will assist Archbishop Timothy John Costelloe alongside Auxiliary Bishop Donald George Sproxton.

In a statement, the Holy See announced that 57-year old Po was assigned the titular see of Agunto.

“The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Nelson Po, of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Perth, Australia, until now parish priest of Saint Benedict’s Parish in Applecross, as auxiliary bishop of the same metropolitan archdiocese, assigning him the titular see of Agunto,” it said.

Po was born in 1968 in Cantuhaon in the town of Palompon in Leyte province.

He obtained an industrial engineering degree at the then Leyte Institute of Technology, now Eastern Visayas State University.

He completed his master’s degree in theology, majoring in pastoral ministry, at Maryhill School of Theology in Manila.

In 2003, Po arrived in Perth to continue his priestly formation at St. Charles Seminary in Guildford as a seminarian for the archdiocese.

He was ordained priest in 2005.

Prior to his ordination, Po became assistant priest in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder parish.

He also served as Chaplain at the Royal Perth Hospital and as parish priest at the Cloverdale and Applecross parishes.

He is the second Filipino bishop in Australia, after Auxiliary Bishop Rene Ramirez of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, who was appointed by Pope Francis in November 2024. —Mariel Celine Serquiña and Sundy Locus/RF, GMA Integrated News