Bishop Nelson Po has been ordained and begun his ministry as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Perth, in a ceremony attended by more than 1,200 people.
On Thursday night, Bishop NPo received episcopal ordination at the hands of Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB, with a further 3,000 people tuning into the livestream of the liturgy.
In his message of thanks, Bishop Po highlighted that the plan of God never ceases to amaze him, “always with love, care and mercy.”
“I am very honoured by the trust Pope Leo XIV has placed in me and also very humbled in saying yes, in the same way the Virgin Mary did in becoming the Mother of Christ,” Bishop Po said.
Bishop Po's ordination was just the second episcopal ordination to occur in Perth in 50 years, the last being the ordination of fellow auxiliary, Bishop Donald Sproxton in 2002. Prior to that, the last episcopal ordination took place in December 1975, when Bishop Robert Healy was consecrated.
Bishop Po was born on 5 June 1968 in the village of Cantuhaon, Palompon, Leyte, Philippines, as the third of Norma Abordo and Lope Po’s six children.
Following his secondary education, he completed a bachelor’s degree in industrial and management engineering. Following several years working in his chosen profession, he entered the Blessed Sacrament Congregation where he completed a master’s degree in theology, with a major in pastoral ministry, at the Maryhill School of Theology, Manila.
In 2003, at the invitation of Archbishop Hickey, he arrived in Perth to continue his studies for the priesthood at St Charles Seminary, Guildford, as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Perth.
He was ordained on Friday, 9 December 2005 at St Mary's Cathedral, Perth by Archbishop Barry James Hickey for the Archdiocese of Perth along with eight other priests.
Following his ordination to the priesthood in 2005, he served as an assistant priest in the Kalgoorlie-Boulder parish before his subsequent appointments as Chaplain to Royal Perth Hospital and as parish priest of the Cloverdale and Applecross parishes.
At 57, Bishop Po is one of the youngest bishops in the country. Perth's other bishops, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB and Bishop Donald Sproxton, are both in their early 70s.