Paweł Socha

Paweł Socha was born on 10 January 1935 in Wojsławice near Radom, then in the Diocese of Sandomierz and now in the Diocese of Radom. In 1951 he entered the Congregation of the Mission, the community of priests founded by Saint Vincent de Paul, and took his perpetual vows on 8 December 1956. He studied philosophy and theology at the Vincentians' theological institute in Kraków from 1952 to 1958 and was ordained a priest on 22 May 1958 by Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak in the seminary church of the Vincentian Fathers at Stradom in Kraków.

From 1959 to 1962 he studied fundamental theology at the Catholic University of Lublin, and in 1969 he received a doctorate there for a dissertation on the essence of Tradition according to the dogmatic constitution Dei Verbum.

After ordination he served as a curate at the Church of the Assumption in Żagań from 1958 to 1959. In 1962 he began teaching fundamental theology, dogmatic theology and the study of religions at the major seminary in Gościkowo Paradyż. He was prefect there from 1970 to 1973, spiritual director in 1973 and 1974, and rector from 1975 to 1978. He later lectured at the Institute of Spiritual Formation for Lay People in Gorzów Wielkopolski and at the seminary in Legnica.

In November 1973 Pope Paul VI appointed him auxiliary bishop of the new Diocese of Gorzów, with the titular see of Tunigaba. Cardinal Karol Wojtyła consecrated him in Gorzów Cathedral on 26 December 1973. His episcopal motto was Facere veritatem in caritate, "To do the truth in love". After the 1992 reorganisation of Polish dioceses he became auxiliary bishop of Zielona Góra and Gorzów. He was vicar general from 1974 and twice administered the diocese during vacancies, in 1986 after the death of Bishop Wilhelm Pluta and in 1993 after Bishop Józef Michalik moved to Przemyśl. He served under four diocesan bishops: Wilhelm Pluta, Józef Michalik, Adam Dyczkowski and Stefan Regmunt.

In the Polish Episcopal Conference he chaired the Commission for the Clergy from 1980 to 1996 and was a member of commissions on Justice and Peace, seminaries, general pastoral ministry, academic ministry, atheism, Poles abroad, and the joint commission of bishops and major religious superiors. He was national director of the Apostolic Union of Clergy from 1982 to 1997 and took part in the eighth Synod of Bishops in Rome in 1990, which was devoted to the formation of priests. In the diocese he chaired the commission preparing Pope John Paul II's 1997 visit and edited the diocesan journal Ecclesiastica.

Under canon law he offered his resignation as he approached 75 at the end of 2009. Pope Benedict XVI extended his mandate to the end of 2011 and accepted his resignation on 16 January 2012, when he was 77. In retirement he went on assisting Bishop Stefan Regmunt and then Bishop Tadeusz Lityński, visiting parishes and conferring confirmation. In 2023 he marked 50 years as a bishop and 65 years as a priest.

On 11 March 2026, at the bishops' plenary meeting in Warsaw during the 400th anniversary of the Basilica of the Holy Cross, he called on the bishops to move from ministry marked by constant planning, activism and attention to numbers, statistics and measurable success towards listening together to what God says. He had also said that the response to abuse scandals in the Church required truth, justice and purification, and that conversion of hearts was needed more than structural reform.

Bishop Paweł Socha died on the afternoon of Thursday 29 October 2026, aged 91. His death was announced by the Diocese of Zielona Góra and Gorzów and reported by the Polish Episcopal Conference, the Polish Press Agency, Rzeczpospolita, Polsat News and Niedziela. The cause of death was not made public. The diocese said the date and place of the funeral would be announced later.

Socha served as a bishop for almost 53 years, nearly 39 of them in active office, making him one of the longest serving bishops in Poland and one of the last bishops consecrated by Karol Wojtyła before he became pope. He shaped the formation of priests in western Poland as a seminary teacher and rector and, nationally, as long serving chair of the bishops' Commission for the Clergy. He was awarded the Honorary Badge for Services to the Lubusz Voivodeship in 2007, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2018 and its Officer's Cross in 2024, and was made an honorary citizen of the Gózd commune in 2018.