Wilhelm Józef Kurtz ( anglicised to William Joseph Kurtz; 28 May 1935 – 14 February 2023) was a Polish prelate of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Kurtz was born in Kempa, Gau Silesia (now Kępa, Opole Voivodeship). He was ordained to the priesthood as a member of the Society of the Divine Word in 1962. He was appointed bishop of

Kundiawa Kundiawa is the capital of Simbu Province, Papua New Guinea, with a population of 8,147 (2000 Census). It lies along the Highlands Highway approximately halfway between Goroka and Mount Hagen, respectively the capitals of the Eastern Highlands ...

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, in 1982, serving until he was named

coadjutor archbishop The term coadjutor (or coadiutor, literally "co-assister" in Latin) is a title qualifier indicating that the holder shares the office with another person, with powers equal to the other in all but formal order of precedence. These include: * Coad ...

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Histo ...

in 1999. He succeeded

Benedict To Varpin Benedict To Varpin (24 July 1936 – 8 September 2020) was a Papua New Guinean Roman Catholic archbishop. To Varpin was born in Papua New Guinea and was ordained to the priesthood in 1971. He served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of B ...

as archbishop in 2001, and retired from this position in 2010.

References

1935 births 2023 deaths Polish expatriates in Papua New Guinea People from Opole Voivodeship Divine Word Missionaries Order 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Papua New Guinea 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Papua New Guinea Polish Roman Catholic priests Roman Catholic archbishops of Madang Roman Catholic bishops of Kundiawa Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II Polish expatriates Polish Roman Catholic archbishops {{Poland-RC-bishop-stub