Auxiliary Bishop

Bishop Michael Kuchmiak, auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been named the leader of Ukrainian Catholics in Great Britain, church officials announced yesterday. Bishop Kuchmiak, 66, probably will take office in early autumn, according to a statement issued by the archdiocese. In his new post, he will oversee the work of 17 priests serving Ukrainian parishes in England and Scotland. Archbishop Pio Laghi, the Vatican ambassador to the United States, announced the appointment yesterday.

Amid pomp and celebration, Bishop James T. McHugh was formally installed yesterday as the new bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Camden. In an elaborate 90-minute afternoon ceremony at St. Joseph Pro-Cathedral in East Camden, the new bishop received the crozier, the long staff emblematic of the office of bishop, and took his seat on the cathedra, the chair from which a bishop ceremonially presides over his diocese. More than 1,300 people packed the pro-cathedral, a modern brick church that is used as a substitute for the smaller Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Camden.

Bishop James T. McHugh, long a leader in the Catholic Church's battle against abortion and artificial birth control, has been appointed to head the Diocese of Camden. Bishop McHugh, currently an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Newark, will succeed Bishop George H. Guilfoyle, who is retiring after 21 years as the leader of the Camden diocese. Bishop Guilfoyle submitted his resignation to the Pope when he turned 75 in November, as required by church law. Bishop McHugh will be installed as Camden bishop on June 20, becoming the leader of nearly 374,000 Catholics in Salem, Camden, Gloucester, Cumberland, Atlantic and Cape May Counties.

Bishop William H. Keeler of Harrisburg yesterday was named archbishop of Baltimore, the oldest Catholic archdiocese in the United States. Bishop Keeler, whose appointment by Pope John Paul II was praised by Catholics and non-Catholics alike, is known for his efforts to promote understanding between the church and other religious groups in the United States. In the summer of 1987, the bishop was a key figure in smoothing over relations between the Jewish community and the Vatican after a controversial meeting between the Pope and Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, who had been accused of complicity in Nazi war crimes.

Pope John Paul II has named Bishop Francis B. Schulte, a native of Philadelphia, to be archbishop of New Orleans, church officials announced yesterday. Bishop Schulte, 60, who served as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1981 to 1985 and headed the archdiocesan school system from 1970 to 1980, has been bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., for the last 3 1/2 years. He succeeds Archbishop Philip M. Hannan, who submitted his resignation to the Pope, as required by church law, when he turned 75 on May 20. Bishop Schulte will be installed as archbishop in a ceremony Feb. 14 at St. Louis Cathedral, according to Thomas Finney, spokesman for the New Orleans Archdiocese.

Pope John Paul II has named a priest from Washington to be auxiliary bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, church officials announced yesterday. The Pope appointed the Rev. Michael Kuchmiak, 65, to assist Archbishop Stephen Sulyk in ministering to about 100,000 Ukrainian Catholics, scattered in 82 parishes and two missions from northern New Jersey to central Virginia. Philadelphia's is the only Ukrainian archdiocese in the United States. Father Kuchmiak, a member of the Redemptorist order of priests, currently is pastor of the Ukrainian National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington.

Archbishop Anthony J. Bevilacqua yesterday became the 11th man to head the Roman Catholic See of Philadelphia. His predecessors all have made significant contributions to the growth of the archdiocese, which began as a suffragan (or subordinate) of the Baltimore See and did not become a diocese until 1808. These were the first 10 bishops: Bishop Michael Egan, an Irish Franciscan, began to administer the 4,700- member diocese - then all of Pennsylvania and Delaware and part of New Jersey - in 1808 as vicar general to the bishop of Baltimore, and was not consecrated bishop until 1810.

Cardinal John Krol is wrapping it up. In one of his final appearances as archbishop of Philadelphia yesterday, Krol was alternately mellow and tough and ready for a clean break when he retires Feb. 11. Krol, 77, made all that clear in a press conference and a series of interviews under broiling TV lights at his residence, 5700 City Ave. He labeled questions about his own legacy as "hackneyed" and suggested people would barely remember his...

The only part of Cardinal John Krol's childhood that foretold his prominence in the Catholic Church was his surname. He grew up in poverty, one of eight children of a Polish immigrant laborer. As a teen he cut meat, and, at 77, his hands still bear the scars of that work. In Polish, Krol means "king," and that is how many say the cardinal ruled the archdiocese's nearly 1.3 million Catholics for 27 years. Over that time, he became highly influential on a national and global scale.

Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua, the son of Italian immigrants and the current bishop of Pittsburgh, was named yesterday by Pope John Paul II to succeed Cardinal John Krol as archbishop of Philadelphia. Bishop Bevilacqua sat at Cardinal Krol's side yesterday morning as the 77- year-old cardinal said that, more than two years after he reached retirement age, his resignation had finally been accepted by the Pope. "Philadelphia deserves much better service than I am able at this stage of my life to give," Cardinal Krol said during the news conference at his residence at 5700 City Ave. "They tell me that after you're 70, six months can make a big difference.