Father James W. Kirkpatrick

Bishop Richard J. Malone announced the following changes in parish leadership.  Father James W. Kirkpatrick has been appointed pastor of St. Jude the Apostle Parish in North Tonawanda; Father Marius Dymek, OSPPE, has been appointed pastor of St. Stanislaus Parish, Buffalo; Father Michael Czyzewski, OSPPE, has been appointed administrator of Corpus Christi, Buffalo; and Father Thaddeus M. Bocianowski has been appointed temporary administrator of St. Padre Pio Parish, Oakfield.  

Father Kirkpatrick, a native of Lewiston and graduate of Niagara-Wheatfield High School, Canisius College and Christ the King Seminary, East Aurora, was ordained in 2008.  His previous assignments were as parochial vicar at SS. Peter and Paul Parish, Hamburg, and St. Philip the Apostle, Cheektowaga.  In 2012, Bishop Malone named Father Kirkpatrick pastor of St. Padre Pio Parish in Oakfield, and in 2014, the bishop assigned him additional responsibilities as vicar forane for the Genesee-Wyoming Vicariate.  Father Kirkpatrick began his new duties at St. Jude the Apostle in April.  His appointment is for a term of six years.

Father Dymek, a priest of the Pauline order and former pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, has assumed responsibilities as pastor of St. Stanislaus as the Pauline Fathers take over leadership of that parish. While the parish remains a diocesan parish, the Pauline Fathers, who had expressed an interest in expanding their ministry in the Diocese of Buffalo, will continue the longstanding Polish heritage and traditions of St. Stanislaus. Father Czyzewski assumed the duties as administrator at Corpus Christi following Father Dymek's new assignment.    

The former pastor at St. Stanislaus, Father Bocianowski, was named temporary administrator at St. Padre Pio Parish.  Father Bocianowski, a native of Poland, came to the United States in the 1980s after serving as a priest in Poland for 14 years.

He spent his first six years in the country in South Dakota before coming to the Diocese of Buffalo. He has been parochial vicar at Assumption Parish, Buffalo, and was named pastor of St. Adalbert Parish, Buffalo, in 1996. In 2009, Bishop Edward U. Kmiec named him pastor at St. Stanislaus Parish.