Piotr Turzyński

Piotr Wojciech Turzyński (28 September 1964 – 14 April 2025) was a Polish Roman Catholic prelate.

Turzyński was born on 28 September 1964, in Radom as one of three children of Julian and Helena née Rzadkowska.^[1]

He was educated at the local Tytus Chałubiński 4th High School,^[1] where he passed his secondary school leaving exam in 1982.^[2] During his high school education, he was an animator of the Light-Life Movement^[1] In the years 1982–1988, he studied philosophy and theology at the Higher Seminary in Sandomierz.^[2] He was ordained a priest on 28 May 1988 in the Radom co-cathedral by Bishop Edward Materski. He was incardinated into the Sandomierz-Radom diocese.^[3] He obtained his master's degree in theology at the Catholic University of Lublin.^[1] From 1989 to 1992 he continued his studies at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute in Rome, graduating with a licentiate in theology and patristic sciences.^[3] He continued his studies from 1992 to 1995 at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome,^[3] where in 1996 he received a doctorate in theological sciences based on the dissertation Il Cantico nuovo nella teologia di sant'Agostino. Specialmente nelle Enarrationes in Psalmos (Canticum novum in the theology of Saint Augustine. Study on the Commentary on the Psalms).^[4] He obtained his habilitation in 2014 at the Faculty of Theology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw after submitting the dissertation Beauty in the theology of Saint Augustine. An attempt to systematize Augustinian theological aesthetics.^[4]

In the years 1988–1989, he worked as a vicar in the parish of the Mother of the Redeemer in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. During this time, he led, among other things, a youth oasis group in the parish and in the city, a teachers' ministry.^[1] After the reorganization of diocesan structures in Poland in 1992, he was included in the presbytery of the Radom diocese.^[5] In 1999, he was appointed director of the diocesan council for the permanent formation of priests, and in 2006 director of the diocesan council for consecrated life.^[3] In 2002, he joined the priests' council of the diocese.^[5] In 2008, during the 2nd diocesan synod, he assumed the position of chairman of the synodal commission for culture, media and new evangelization. He led retreats and retreats for priests, nuns and clerics, as well as missions and parish and youth retreats.^[3] He got involved in the activities of the Home Church.^[2] He prepared meetings for the youth of the Radom diocese under the names Kuźnia Młodych, Appeals for the Young and Diocesan Days of Youth. He took part in founding the association Młyńska. Verum, Bonum, Pulchrum, which organized the Weeks of Christian Culture.^[3] He hosted evangelization broadcasts on the diocesan Radio AVE and Radio Plus Radom.^[1][3] In 2003 he was appointed canon of the Ostra Brama Chapter in Skarżysko-Kamienna.^[3]

In the years 1995–2006 he served as spiritual father at the Higher Theological Seminary in Radom, and in 2006 he took up the office of vice-rector of the seminary.^[5] He began lecturing there on patrology, introduction to theology and theology of spirituality,^[3] and also ran a clerical theater.^[1] In 2000, he became an assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology in Radom (later renamed the Institute of Theology) at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw. In the years 2006–2012, he was deputy director of the institute, dealing with matters related to part-time studies and the Benedict XVI Thought Center. In 2013, he was appointed assistant professor at the Faculty of Theology of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin at the Institute of Church History and Patrology at the Chair of Greek and Latin Patrology.^[1]

On 17 January 2015, Pope Francis appointed him auxiliary bishop of the Radom diocese with the titular see of Usula.^[5][6] He was ordained a bishop on 28 February 2015 at the Cathedral of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Radom.^[7][8] They were given to him by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Apostolic Nuncio to Poland, assisted by Wacław Depo, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Częstochowa, and Henryk Tomasik, the Diocesan Bishop of Radom.^[7] He adopted the words Ecclesia Mater – Mater Ecclesiae (Mother Church – Mother of the Church)^[9] as his episcopal motto. He assumed the office of vicar general in the diocesan curia.^[10] Within the Polish Episcopal Conference, in 2015 he became a delegate for the Pastoral Care of Teachers,^[11] and in 2022 a delegate for the Pastoral Care of Polish Emigration,^[12] in 2018 he became a member of the Permanent Council,^[13] in 2020 of the Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith,^[14] in 2021 of the Council for Social Affairs,^[15] in 2023 of the Commission for the Clergy,^[16] and in 2024 of the Joint Commission of Representatives of the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Episcopal Conference.^[17]

Turzyński died from cancer in Radom, on 14 April 2025, at the age of 60.^[18][19] On 22 April, he was buried in the tombs of the bishops of Radom at the cemetery on Limanowskiego Street in Radom.^[20]

In 2025, the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, posthumously awarded him the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.^[21]

He was also posthumously awarded the Bene Merenti Civitas Radomiensis medal.^[20]

• Piotr Wojciech Turzyński at Catholic Hierarchy