A Filipino priest was ordained auxiliary bishop of Perth on April 16, becoming the archdiocese’s first prelate from Southeast Asia and the second Filipino bishop in Australia.
More than 1,200 faithful filled St Mary’s Cathedral for the episcopal ordination, a milestone for the local church and migrant communities.
Principal consecrator Archbishop Timothy Costelloe led the rite, along with Auxiliary Bishop Donald George Sproxton and incoming Sandhurst Bishop Ramirez, also of Filipino descent, as co-consecrators.
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About 19 other bishops from across Australia joined the Mass, including Apostolic Nuncio Charles Balvo.
In remarks after his ordination, Bishop Nelson Po acknowledged the experience as “so humbling and at one point so humiliating.”
He said the transition led him to question “the authenticity of the call” he had accepted, reflecting the weight of pastoral responsibility in a diverse archdiocese.
Recalling his arrival in 2003, Po said a “seemingly hesitant seminarian” and “reluctant immigrant” could not have imagined leading the faithful in Perth.
“I may not feel an overwhelming sense of worthiness,” he said, “but I humbly express my commitment to serve you all with compassion.”
Po pledged to “journey with you in generosity and to walk humbly with our God,” underscoring a pastoral vision rooted in accompaniment and service.
Appointed to the episcopate by Pope Leo XIV on Feb. 2, 2026, the new bishop was born June 5, 1968, in Cantuhaon, a village in Leyte province’s Palompon town.
He graduated in industrial engineering from Eastern Visayas State University in Tacloban City and worked several years in his profession before entering the Blessed Sacrament Congregation.
He later earned a master’s degree in theology, majoring in pastoral ministry, at Maryhill School of Theology in Manila.
In 2003, at the invitation of then-Archbishop Barry Hickey, he moved to Perth to continue priestly formation at St. Charles Seminary in Guildford.
Ordained a priest in 2005, he later served as an assistant priest in Kalgoorlie-Boulder and held assignments as chaplain to Royal Perth Hospital and parish priest of Cloverdale and Applecross.
